Last Sunday, while walking in the neighbourhood of New Toronto, I came across a sign. Flowers were stolen from a children's garden at Second Street Junior Middle School. I took this photo of the sign.
I also sent out this tweet.
Sign for flowers thief in New Toronto pic.twitter.com/W4L3G9KxU5— Toronto Mike (@torontomike) July 12, 2015
The next day, I heard from a reporter at CTV Toronto. He wanted more details and thought this would make a good news story. They sent over a camera crew and aired this story on the 6pm news on Monday.
Students in Etobicoke were angry to find that flowers from their school garden have been stolen.
As part of a “green project,” parents and students planned to maintain a garden of flowers, fruits and vegetables at Second Street Junior Middle School throughout the summer.
But when students went to water the plants, they were gone.
“I’m very, very upset. Give them back right now,” one young student said. The students raised $500 to create the garden.
According to parents, the most expensive flowers in the garden were targeted by the thieves.
“I was really upset that someone would come steal from a children’s garden,” one parent said.
A sign was put up after the theft, calling out the thieves and asking for the flowers to be returned.
The fruits and vegetables that grow in the garden are destined for a nearby food bank.
I was then contacted by Robin Evans Clarke who saw my tweet and wanted to donate money to the flowers fund. I passed on the contact info I had for one of the parents helping out with this project. That's when she started an Indiegogo campaign.
In less than a day, with a little help from Reddit, she raised her target of $500.
It's awesome watching the community step up like this, turning lemons into lemonade. And to think it all started with a little tweet...
Update: July 18, 2015
