This year we started working with Wallick Communities by starting community gardens on one of their property. Wallick manages rental housing, including apartments for low-income families and seniors based on their income including subsidized housing.
This week I met many of the people running the company from other states. They were so pleased with the work the people living there has done. Also that we are coming in and working with them, not only for gardening but also for sustainability and budgeting. They are so pleased with the Grow Appalachia program that they are going to look and see if we have sites close to any other property of theirs.
In the last month the participants at Castle Village have been working very hard at their gardens. Most of them have started their own seeds and already have their gardens growing pretty. The pictures here are of one of the gardens on the property. There are three gardens total there. They each have plots in the garden closest to their apartment. This bottom picture is the same garden, standing at on end. There are three working on growing this one.
The people who live here are so excited to get to grow gardens and work with us. All I have to do is pull in the parking lot and whoever is home at the time will come to me. They always come to see if I brought anything new for them to plant and to see what is going on.
We also are working with CAP to teach them sustainability and budgeting. Each month we have two classes in their community room. We have one workshop for Grow Appalachia and one class on sustainability and budgeting. This past month the title was “keep clean, green and economical.” At the class they received a copy of cleaner recipes and also made laundry detergent. We had about 35 people not counting kids join us for this. Each took home the detergent they made. They learned about sustainable choices equal economical choices, household inventory, as well as cost and environmental friendly facts about the cleaners we use. All the pictures below are them making their detergent. In the last picture, even the apartment manager Melissa was getting involved and trying her hand at making some.
It always nice to have someone who is excited to see you. I have really enjoyed getting to know these people and working with them as well as the group that come to the office this year. It makes things so much easier when you see the involvement, excitement and work they are putting into it. It’s so simple to help other and help them change for the better. Everyone needs some help in their lives at some time, just not everyone will except it and some won’t ask for it. You never know you might learn something or it help you and you not even know it if you help others.
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