Young Mableton Gardeners Filmed for Documentary on Aging

Fifteen children from the Boys & Girls Club picked veggies from the Historic Mableton Community Garden on Monday as their six-week gardening program came to a close. The children were filmed for a documentary, which will include people from Mableton, about coming of age in America.

During the program, the children learned about vegetables, soil and more at the garden from organizers, including Fannie Haughton.

“They’ve become little gardeners,” Haughton said. “I just love these kids.”

The children had a plot of their own, which they were able to see grow as they took care of it over the course of the program.

For 8-year-old Kaylan Cooper, the best part of the program was “planting my tomatoes. They’re a little sweeter than the ones you buy at the store.”

Susan Sprecher, a producer for a documentary about coming of age in America, came from her home in Boston to film the event.

Vital Pictures is the company shooting the documentary, and Mableton will be included because of Lifelong Mableton, the creation of the new pedestrian-friendly Mableton Redevelopment district and initiatives like the Farmers Market and community gardens that have come about in the last couple of years.

“Now America is growing older and we’re going to need a whole lot of changes in a whole lot of areas, and Mableton is a part of that,”

The documentary is being funded in part by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which supports “creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world, according to its website. It is one of the largest independent foundations in the nation.

When it comes to aging, Sprecher said, “It’s not just about old people…It’s about all generations.”

Sprecher pointed out that the Baby Boomer generation is the first one that grew up in a suburb, which is “a great place to grow up, but is it a great place to grow old?”

The documentary will likely be completed by the end of 2012, but a preview website for the film will be completed by the end of December.

She said the purpose of the documentary is “to get people focused on what it means” to grow old in this country.