Building up kids, adults through hands-on Georgetown program

GEORGETOWN, Del.- A community full of passionate teachers have come together to bridge the gap in learning and give kids hands on experiences.

“We started with just 35 children it has since grown to over 200 plus children,” Talon Holleman, Founder and Program Director of R.O.O.T.S. Youth Development Program, said.

Over 7 years ago, the Holleman family had a vision to do more with their lives. Eventually starting, the Reaching Outside of Traditional Schooling Program, also known as R.O.O.T.S.

“We take a community centered approach and we teach self efficiency, we promote altruism throughout the community, and we try to bridge the gap in traditional schooling,” Talon said.

The program is run on the family’s 3-acre Georgetown property focusing on nature integration and building life skills for a variety of age groups. These activities include taking care of animals, planting, composting, soap making, and more.

“Anything that is not taught in schools like practical life skills, life skills in general, interpersonal skills, communication we bring that to our community because we find there’s a huge need, there’s a demand,” Talon said.

“Originally, this was kind of something that we’ve dreamt up of like a passion project, so the fact that we’ve had so many of our people that have actually welcomed us and kind of validated this kind of platform has been very awesome,” Travis Holleman, Co-Founder of R.O.O.T.S., said.

With the help of teachers, the Holleman family is able to give this experience to those in the community.

“We are learning along with the kids to be able to teach them just like the parents are which is pretty neat,” Brooke Rodriguez, a R.O.O.T.S. teacher, said.

“We have whole families coming together, multi-generational you know, grandma might be there with the youngest child and they are gonna learn together and that’s something that is very unique,” Rhonda Cipolla, Growth Coordinator and Camps R.O.O.T.S. Director, said.

“So, they get to be like ‘Hey I learned about this butterfly, I see it in our yard or you know whatever,’ and they get to carry it over and take that with them as they go,” Jackie Bush, Explorers Lead Teacher, said.

And, the work the R.O.O.T.S. staff is doing is proving to be meaningful..

“Coming out of a pandemic and as a new young mom I was really looking to rebuild that community around like minded individuals,” Jennifer Downey, a R.O.O.T.S. parent, said.

“I think it really solidified things that we’ve already done; they really want to help out in the garden more and things that they make here like a bee hotel; they bring it home, they want to put it up right away,” Christi-June Chiu, a R.O.O.T.S. parent, said.

The founders of R.O.O.T.S. said they don’t only just do experiences on their land, they go to libraries, local businesses, and schools. But, going forward they want to grow even more.

“We are are trying to expand into schools, we are working with becoming more care farming which is with the special needs population,” Talon said.

To learn more about the program and how to get involved, click here.