“Where do green beans come from?” It may sound like a simple question, but the impact of the answer could be the moment a child cultivates a lifelong passion. 

That’s what happened with Sharon Danks. Watching her mother pick vegetables in the family garden, a young Sharon asked the question and then heard an answer that set her on a green path: “You grow them,” her mother said.

Since those long ago days in the garden, Sharon has evolved into an influential advocate for creating vibrant public spaces for schoolchildren. As the executive director of Green Schoolyards America, Sharon and her organization seek to transform asphalt-covered school grounds into parklike green spaces that improve children’s well-being, learning and play while contributing to the ecological health and resilience of our cities.

California youth especially benefit from her work and thrive in well-developed playgrounds. In Oakland, Sharon co-authored the Living Schoolyard Policy for the Oakland Unified School District. The policy, which the school board adopted, outlines a vision for green schoolyards across all of Oakland’s 80-plus schools and starts the process of establishing a formal framework to implement that major change. 

The policy is unique because it combines ideas about children’s health and education with environmental resilience. It also includes a stellar lineup of collaborators with The Trust for Public Land and the Sierra Club.

Sharon’s passion for positive social change is shared by her brother and sister-in-law, who are Green Schoolyards America supporters. Once her brother learned how many children would benefit from green schoolyards, the couple were compelled to support the group. 

“People who visit national parks and the children who actually visit them are dwarfed in comparison to the number of kids who play in schoolyards,” he says. “We don’t think about managing the land that way. Our schoolyards are distributed lands just as much as our national parks, and we can be the same care keepers of those as much as our very backyard.”

Sharon’s brother and his wife make Green Schoolyards America – and giving – a priority. They recognized immediately the opportunity they have to be stewards of incredible lands where there can be positive health impacts on our children in our own neighborhoods, every day.

Meaningful connections like those drive the couple’s giving decisions. Before they give, the pair ask themselves these three questions:

1. To what extent does the organization care about the problem, and what is the nonprofit trying to solve?

2. Can the person leading the organization do the hard work of getting the work done to manifest the full vision?

3. Is there something about the strategy of this nonprofit that will give it a greater than normal chance to be successful and actually win at solving the problem?

Fortunately, Green Schoolyards America continues to pursue its growth emboldened by its success. Sharon is also seeking a new interdisciplinary initiative designed to align state policy and funding to change the norm for California’s 6.2 million children on 130,000 acres of school grounds. 

With Green Schoolyards America’s leadership, the future may indeed be greener. After all, wouldn’t you like to see where green beans come from?