I caught up with Larry Watts as he was working in the garden at House of Bread (9 Orth Avenue) in Dayton’s Old Dayton View neighborhood. Larry is the founder of Seeds of Peace Dayton Ohio-New Page.
Seeds of Peace gives children, primarily those from the Five Oaks neighborhood, the type of experiences most children take for granted. Watts and a handful of volunteers drive kids to the swimming pool, a karate class, a fishing lake or an arts program.
“Today we’re all getting lunch at the House of Bread” he explained “and then we’ll work in the garden plots that we maintain here. Next time we’ll do something fun, just to balance things out.”
Watts started Seeds of Peace ten years ago. “2009 was a bad time in our neighborhood” he said. “There was a string of shootings on the West side and I felt guilty. I felt that I wasn’t doing what I could to make things better.”
Watts told me he’s taken kids on more than 1,000 outings over the last ten years. He relies on donations from churches and some individuals to cover gas and admission costs. If you’d like to help, email him at [email protected]
