Road Trip Planned for Science Park Project

A private San Fernando Valley foundation that replaced asphalt at a Burbank elementary school with an environmental science park has announced plans to expand the park program to schools in New York and Russia.

The Alliance for Children’s Trust Foundation of Toluca Lake broke ground on the Burbank project in 1993, vowing to bring its opportunities for at-risk students to other U.S. cities. More than three years later, foundation officials say the program, which incorporates greenhouses, gardens and multimedia learning stations into the curriculum, is ready to travel even farther.

“We want to take it to areas where kids have never planted anything,” said program organizer Joe Gruber. “It gives a new slant and a new idea to their education.”

Gruber’s friendship with singer Michael Zvezdinsky--described by foundation publicist Jana Olson-Collins as “a Russian Frank Sinatra”--prompted the idea for the exchange. In June, students and officials from George Washington Elementary School in Burbank will join foundation representatives in Moscow to tell Russian students about their experiences.

Schools in Brooklyn and Queens, N.Y., will be linked to Burbank and Russia by the Internet and regular exchange trips, Gruber said. Russian-based Transaero Airlines already has pledged to fly students back and forth. Private donors in Russia already have contributed, and Gruber said Russian funds may even be used to bolster the U.S. programs.

One main goal of the program is to reinforce the school’s role in the community--no matter what country it is in.

“We want them to look to the natural and not pollute the planet,” he said. “When they’re learning how to put effort into the community, they won’t want to go out at night and destroy it.”