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Home > News & Events >Gardeners Give |
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WILLING AND ABLE TO HELP: Gardeners in Livonia learn as they grow vegetables to feed people in needBy MARTY HAIRFree Press Garden Writer August 6, 2004 Mary Ann Cate looks out over the ripening tomatoes and peppers in a garden in Livonia and smiles at what the harvest will bring. "We might not end up with more than a bushel basket," she says. "But when you think of what good it might do, it could be significant." Along with skills trainers Christie Sims and Krystle O'Hara, Cate is guiding a garden project involving 25 adults in Services to Enhance Potential, or STEP. The nonprofit agency serves Wayne County residents with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, vision impairments, physical disabilities and autism. They volunteered to raise vegetables on a 24-foot-square plot at Greenmead, a farm owned by the City of Livonia. This year, STEP will donate some extra produce to the Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign. Forgotten Harvest will collect and distribute it to agencies that feed those in need. The volunteer gardeners are clients of STEP's northwest community resource center in Livonia, one of six the Dearborn-based agency operates throughout Wayne County. Greenmead leases 240 garden plots each year for $20 each and in return supplies water and hoses, wheelbarrows, compost and mulch. It also sponsors a hot dog picnic and harvest celebration for all gardeners. Greenmead waived the fee for the STEP plot. While working in the garden, STEP participant Grant Abrams, 44, of Redford concentrates as he turns the soil between planted rows. He's careful not to step on vegetables in the muddy soil. Looking up, he calls over to Cate: "Are you proud of me?" "Yes, I am," she replies. After hearing her answer, Abrams resumes his task. "I work. I work hard here," he says quietly.
Cate, a resident of Carleton, says the Livonia center formerly operated as a sheltered workshop but now offers people the chance to volunteer, if they choose, with 18 organizations. At Greenmead, STEP participants also work on landscaping and help make decorations for various activities. They also deliver meals to the homebound or volunteer in a Focus:HOPE program for seniors, at churches or at a preschool. They travel in agency vans and live in group homes, on their own or with their families. Grice says people with significant disabilities may not have had the chance to develop as many outside relationships as others. Through volunteering, they meet a variety of people and experience the feeling of making a contribution to their communities. They also may learn skills such as how to follow directions that will be helpful in finding paid employment, a process for which STEP provides assistance. About 240 participants have full- or part-time jobs. STEP contracts with managed care networks in Wayne County to provide services, which are funded through federal Medicaid, vocational rehabilitation funds and other sources, Grice says.
Moves like that are significant, and volunteers celebrate one another's successes. As Robert Armstrong, 49, of Livonia works the soil, Abrams shouts, "Good job, Bobby, good job!" Schellean Quick, 39, of Livonia applauds. Sims of Redford, the experienced gardener on the project, says most of the garden's plants are from donated flats. STEP's first garden at Greenmead was last summer. This year's project is turning out to be more productive. Sims visits the garden every day. Depending on the weather, volunteers go several times a week to water and weed. "It's a good therapeutic outdoor activity," Cate says. For STEP gardener Craig DeGolyer, 34, of Garden City the opportunity has been enjoyable -- and so is the prospect of the Aug. 17 picnic for gardeners. "I pull out weeds. I like to be outside," DeGolyer says. And how does he feel knowing that vegetables he helps grow will feed people who are hungry? DeGolyer ponders the question, then nods. "I like that idea," he says.
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