Today NB Traveler is featuring the Marigolds and Murals Project – a program that has been going on for over 20 years in Saint John – and I am interviewing Barry Ogden, the man that brought the program into existence.  Barry states: “Well, we started out with it was one garden and one school, and we're now up to about 46 schools all over Greater Saint John. And I think we've gone over 5 million marigolds now. And 10 years ago, we set the world record for the most flowers planted at one time.” When asked what the main purpose of the project was, he responded the following: Well, one of course is beautification. But another reason is to empower children - that they have the power to change, make things happen.  And another one was to use what we call cross curriculum learning, which was that they started counting the germination rates, learning about photosynthesis.  They wrote some music and they did some artwork. They did some poetry and learned more about their community, where the marigolds were. So it's what we call cross curriculum. It's hands on and academic, and it's inclusive. Every child was involved, and of course it develops pride in the child and in the community because people were saying, “My God, who planted those beautiful marigolds?” And of course, it was the children and their teachers. To obtain more information about The Marigold Project, go to their website

Mark J Brewer, Host