Somerville Community Growing Center offers fresh evergreen wreaths for the holidays.

By Cathleen Twardzik

This year, the Somerville Community Growing Center will again offer fresh evergreen wreaths for the holidays – all of which are artistically hand-decorated, by volunteers or by community partners, such as Gaining Ground in Concord.

The adornments include dried flowers, berries and pine cones – and, to top it all off, an attractive bow.  Further, the wreath base was purchased from Wilson Farm.

Each wreath costs $30, for orders, which are received by December 1.

Pick up a $35 wreath at the Union Square Winter Craft Market on December 4 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“About 100 wreaths are available, and we intend to sell out, as in years past,” said Jared M. Worful, President of the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Community Growing Center.

The sale, which became a tradition in the mid 1990s, provides “a way to raise funds to help support our mission and the efforts of a local garden group at the Walnut Street Center,” he said.

On January 20, 2011 after the holiday season, the Growing Center will be holding a fundraiser at the newly-opened Journeyman Restaurant in Union Square.

On March 5, “kick off” the spring season with the center’s family-friendly event Maple Syrup Boil Down.

Full Circle students unloading the trees. This year, trees will be unloaded on December 3, the first day of the fundraiser.

Find more Christmas cheer at the annual Next Wave Junior High School and Full Circle High School student fundraiser, which will span from December 3 to December 22.  Purchase a Christmas tree and wreath from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. or on a weekend from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The lot is located at Foss Park near the MDC pool.

Further, the tree sale has existed for 12 years, according to Principal Willey of the Full Circle and Next Wave Alternative Schools.

Net proceeds will benefit the schools’ Student Activities Fund.  Students will staff the lot, under supervision of teachers and counselors.  Importantly, that work will enable them to learn valuable work skills.

“These funds are used to pay for educational field trips, which are used as rewards to students who meet individualized goals – like meeting attendance goals or homework goals. Activities also help [to] build community, among students who may not have strong family or community ties outside of school. Examples of activities supported by the tree sale include field trips to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and camping trips to Cape Cod and New Hampshire,” said Gretchen Kinder, Coordinator of R&D, Public Information and Grants for the Somerville Public Schools.