The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum today announced that, on Tuesday, May 11, at 4:00 p.m., it will continue its World Thinking Day program with local Girl Scouts by helping them plant tomatoes at Dave’s Garden in Weyers Cave.  Dave’s Garden, located at 1022 Chapel Hill Lane in Weyers Cave, is sponsored by Staunton’s Emmanuel Episcopal Church and donates food and proceeds to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.  The Girl Scouts’ effort is a continuation of World Thinking Day in February when Girl Scouts learned about world hunger and started seeds for the garden.   

The participating Girl Scouts, part of the Staunton Service Unit of the Virginia Skyline Council, will plant 96 Roma tomato plants that they started as seeds in February.  Driver Brothers of Staunton has been safekeeping the plants.   

Last February 20, Presidential Library educators led a World Thinking Day program in Staunton about world hunger.  World Thinking Day is an annual event at which Girl Scouts and Girl Guides worldwide contemplate a common problem.  This year, the theme nationwide was “Together we can end extreme poverty and hunger.”  In addition to planting the seeds, participants learned about world hunger, played a guided game to better understand the impact of the uneven distribution of resources around the world, and created posters for area businesses highlighting the issues of world hunger.  

This program is a part of the WWPL’s educational outreach program.  The Presidential Library regularly hosts area students for interactive programs that meet Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) requirements.  In the “Journey Into History” program and the “Professor, President, Peacemaker” program, students engage in a guided tour of Woodrow Wilson's birthplace and group activities in the Woodrow Wilson Museum and the Presidential Library’s classroom and education parlor.  The WWPL also hosts two sessions of a summer “Journey Into History” camp, a three-day interactive history camp with a different theme each summer.

For more information about the Presidential Library’s educational programming for children, contact Ellen Abernethy, Museum Educator, at (540) 885-0897, ext. 110, or at eabernethy@woodrowwilson.org.