However, planning, developing, constructing, planting, and maintaining a literacy garden will require hard work, dedication, and funding. We currently seek community volunteers as well as grant money to help us complete the literacy garden. We expect a large turnout of volunteer manpower from the Church and from the community. We intend to keep the budget for the garden low, to ensure immediate construction and success. Local landscaping and gardening workers may be willing to donate their services for a nominal fee. Many of the people involved with the initial stages of the project will learn how to construct community gardens on their own: by conducting Internet and library research. This grant proposal includes a list of websites that we will draw on once we commence construction. Students from the school as well as adult community members can work in preparation for the Holy Cross literacy garden, just as students helped to plan and build elements of the Dodds School literacy garden in Illinois. A literacy garden developed by Melville Elementary School in Rhode Island is another example of past successes with literacy gardens in schools. The literacy garden in Providence emphasizes the fact that literacy gardens serve the needs of the entire community in providing learning spaces for students and immigrants and peaceful spaces for all citizens. Largely because of the success of other literacy gardens throughout the world, we are confident in the future of our project. Therefore, any investment into our literacy garden project will pay off. The literacy garden will become a valuable resource for all members of the community, not just for members of the Holy Cross Parish or its students. The garden will beautify and uplift the community. Volunteers can also feel confident that their hard work and dedication will pay off; the fruits of their labor will be visible before long.

Currently, we are asking students to compose letters requesting financial support and volunteer work from community members. Student involvement and enthusiasm is high. Similarly,...

Writing letters in support of the literacy garden is an initial example of how the project is already helping our students to develop their reading, writing, and communications skills. Furthermore, some students will be asked to speak in public about the literacy garden, by delivering speeches at local non-profit organizations and churches. The benefits of the literacy garden are already being manifested in this early stage of our project.
We estimate that the Holy Cross literacy garden will require an initial investment of about $5,000. This small sum will enable us to construct the garden on school property, purchase materials required for building and planting, purchase seeds and plants, and hire experts. With this initial money, the Holy Cross School will create a long-lasting legacy for the community. Future generations will reap the benefits of our hard work, which will blossom in the years to come.