CHICAGO, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- A worldwide campaign to reinvigorate the spiritual roots of early childhood education through gardening rolled into Chicago with the opening of the Independent Garden Center Trade Fair scheduled from August 17th to 19th. Sponsored by Marc Daniels, author, businessman and eldest grandson of the inventor of the popular Ross Root Feeder®, the kids' crusader seeks to enrich the country's school children with a diet rich in social action and gardening pedagogy.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100818/CG52029)

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100818/CG52029)

Fresh from his August 16th visit to the Lincoln Home National Historic site in Springfield, IL, where, in connection with the cities of Des Moines and Springfield, he recalled his success in sponsoring separate city resolutions urging kids to "weed out hate" through gardening: The proclamations are tied to August 28th, the date of Dr. Martin Luther King's historic  "I have a dream" speech, delivered in the nation's capital in 1963.

Commemorative Ross Root Feeders® were dipped into tree roots on the grounds of the Lincoln Home Site in Springfield, Illinois where the nation's 16th president was born and raised. Mr. Daniels aims to present these root feeders to elected officials and policy makers across the globe: the intent being to motivate them and their countries' children to "weed out hate." Said Daniels, "Gardening, and specifically the process of extracting the 'weeds' seeds of hate,' can serve as powerful metaphor to motivate behavioral change in societies plagued with bias and prejudice." Daniels is striving to form a coalition of business, government and educational groups to support gardening pedagogy and social action here in the United States and abroad.

Future campaign stops include: GAFA Garden Trade Fair in Cologne, Germany, September 5 - 7, Allegria Kongress in Hamburg, Germany, September 17 - 19 and Glee Trade Fair in Birmingham, UK, September 20, 2010.

To contact Marc Daniels for scheduling media interviews during the IGC Trade Fair:

Email: marc@weedouthate.org or Mobile: 217-416-9847.

For European Tradeshows:

Email: marc@weedouthate.org or Mobile: +49 172 669 3488

About Marc Daniels

Marc Daniels is an author, businessman and eldest grandson of Ross Daniels, the inventor of the Ross Root Feeder®. He has devoted the past five years of his life to researching and writing about the spiritual, cultural and ecological roots of gardening. His new book, Himmelsgarten: Das Handbuch des Spirituelen Gartners (Heaven's Garden: The Handbook of Spiritual Gardeners) is being released in Germany, January 2011, by Allergria Verlag, a unit of the Ullstein Group of Publishers. Discussions are underway for a US publisher. Mr. Daniels is a guest blogger for Neighborhood BugWatch (www.neighborhoodbugwatch.com), a social networking lawn and gardening community where the text of his Springfield, IL speech and the two city proclamations may be found.

SOURCE Marc Daniels