Jan 14, 2021

Seed Your Future Launches 2021 Bloom! Campaign

Seed Your Future has announced the launch of “Plants to the Rescue!” — its 2021 BLOOM! campaign to excite young people about the power of plants and their unique ability to help solve some of the most pressing problems in their communities. In collaboration with Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, BLOOM! provides free eye-catching, fact-based, online content for educators, youth program leaders and parents.

Plants are critical to a healthy future for the plants and people, but their power is unknown to most American youth. The latest BLOOM! campaign marks year four of this initiative of Seed Your Future, a coalition of more than 200 partners — including horticulture companies, gardening organizations, schools, colleges, universities, public gardens, youth organizations, nonprofit organizations and individual advocates — united in their mission to promote horticulture and careers working with plants.

“Youth have told us that they want to help solve some of the most difficult problems in our world today,” said Susan E. Yoder, executive director of Seed Your Future. “Students are learning about global health issues, world hunger, climate change, flooding, air pollution, noise pollution, food deserts and more, and they’re eager to do something about it — but they don’t know how or even what would make a difference. BLOOM! helps them to identify the root of each challenge and opens their eyes to how the power of plants and the people who work with them can make a positive impact.”

Seed Your Future, along with Scholastic, has expanded its online educator website — www.scholastic.com/bloom. With the current national focus on online learning and resources, the site includes free downloadable educator lesson plans, student activities, inspiring wall posters and a robust online learning module. The module contains a dynamic video along with a trivia game, virtual plant dissection tool and plant matching game to reinforce the learning in the activities and video.

The new “Plants to the Rescue! Plant Mash-Up” contest and sweepstakes takes learning a step further and engages students in imagining their own plant hybrid with unique qualities to benefit a specific challenge they identify in their own community. They will select an issue, then envision and describe a new plant-based solution and illustrate their idea. A Grand Prize and a Runner Up Prize are awarded to both the student and the educator/youth program leader/parent of the winning submissions. In addition, a sweepstakes component, where a student is randomly selected from all entries, gives ever submission the change to be a winner.

This year, there is also a colorful, downloadable poster introducing youth to the more than 140 careers working with plants. In addition to the educator website, the main Seed Your Future website, www.seedyourfuture.org, serves as a digital hub of resources on careers in horticulture, including links to cool videos, real-life stories, and engaging content to inspire youth and their families.