Community garden flourishes as young people learn skills, values
Shaquaiel Reid, 14, works in the Weinland Park Community Garden at the Godman Guild, where teenagers learn more than just gardening.
Rico Wright, 17, works on the garden's compost pile. The Whetstone High School student is one of 17 young people, most ages 16 to 18, working in the garden this summer. They weed, plant, water and hoe 25 hours a week for $7 an hour.
When something in particular pleases her about the Weinland Park Community Garden at the Godman Guild on 6th Avenue -- and nearly everything does -- her voice lilts. The 17-year-old smiles and, occasionally, reaches out to squeeze your arm.
Maybe it's the soap that was made from the herb garden or the Swiss chard being grown for a Short North restaurant. Rollie loves the sunflowers and zinnias, especially the multicolored "tie-dye" varieties that gush from the beds along the west side of the Godman Guild settlement house.
She wants you to notice the half-circle shape of the main garden at the southwest corner of the Godman property in the University District. And Rollie talks about the butterfly garden near the newly painted chain-link fence as if she's cradling the blossoms in her arms.
The peppers and tomatoes, the lettuce and lavender -- all of it mattered during a recent tour through the symmetrical beds and along the stone path designed to mimic the branches of a nearby shade tree.
Rollie points out the raised stage and the mural behind it, which depicts the four seasons of the 3-year-old garden; the new community-calendar kiosk; the tool shed; and the Kelly green benches and picnic tables, all donated by local artists and businesses.
She also stops at the circular "pizza" garden -- basil, oregano and tomatoes -- planted for younger Godman day campers. And about that time in the tour, Rollie, a 2008 graduate of Westerville South High School, pauses to regard her three-year relationship with the garden.
Godman Guild social worker Trisha Dehnbostel started the project four years ago with the idea that she could use the garden to teach teenagers about life well-lived. They learn how to start and finish something, how to get a job and sell produce to a restaurant chef. They learn how to dress, how to make eye contact, how to greet a newcomer to their garden.
"We have learned life values," said Rollie, who heads to Wright State University this fall. "When I first came here, I was shy. I did not want to talk to anybody. I was pretty much in my own little world." Her eyes filled with tears, and her smile drooped just a bit.
"If I start crying, you just stop me, OK?"
This summer, the Godman program has employed 17 young people, most between 16 and 18 years old. They work 25 hours a week for $7 an hour. They weed and hoe, water and plant, plan and watch and wait and fuss.
Maybe they won't notice right away, although I suspect that Rollie does, that they are the garden, and the garden is them -- the dirt, the mulch, the seeds and weeds.
The mayor's new GreenSpot program wasn't created just to denote enviro-conscious businesses; there's also a community-group category. I nominate Weinland Park Community Garden, where children grow the plants and plants grow the children.
Meet them yourself from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the first Urban Farmer's Market, at 1934 N. 4th St. There will be local food and music. Proceeds go to a community-garden fund.
Ann Fisher is a Dispatch Metro columnist. She can be reached at 614-461-8759 or by e-mail.
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