The Power of Volunteerism

A Connecting Generations mentor working with students at DUG's Fairview Elementary Garden.Yesterday, people across Metro Denver celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by donating their time and energy to service projects to better their communities. One of those service projects was a community work day at a new Denver Urban Gardens community garden, Ebert School/Benedict Park Place Community Garden. This garden will serve students and teachers at Ebert School, residents at Denver Housing Authority's Benedict Park Place, and volunteers and neighbors from the surrounding community. Channel 7 covered that event, and you can see the video here. 

Volunteering is a powerful and meaningful way to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. on the day of his remembrance. Any day of the year, volunteering is one of the most impactful ways to connect with your neighbors and improve your community. At Denver Urban Gardens, we rely on thousands of volunteers each year to in order to grow and manage our network of community gardens, education and outreach programs, and community farm. Community members who donate their time are the lifeblood of DUG gardens and programs, and we are grateful for their dedication. From one-day projects to longterm volunteer programs like Connecting Generations, Denver Urban Gardens has volunteer opportunities to suit a wide variety of interests. Click here to view current volunteer opportunities with Denver Urban Gardens, or see the list below for other volunteer opportunities throughout Metro Denver. 

Metro Volunteers

Volunteers of America

Metro CareRing

Project Angel Heart

The Gathering Place

Colorado AIDS Project

Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center

The Hedonist's Garden

He even made the cover!Our own John Hershey, board member, former garden leader, and author of Rakish Wit, is featured in the Fall issue of Edible Front Range! Check it out:

In the springtime, garden writers everywhere rhapsodize about that glorious season of rebirth, when the earth comes alive, bursting with new vitality. This is all wonderful, but there has to be a flipside. If spring is the time of rebirth, then autumn must be the season of redeath.

While the spring garden teems with hope and possibility, a feeling of impending doom hangs over the garden in the fall. We count the days until the average first frost date, wondering if each tomato we pick will be the last one to ripen in time. The contrast is intense: Just as the garden reaches its peak lushness and finally begins to yield a bountiful harvest, a crisp new bite in the morning air reminds us of the inexorable passage of time that will suddenly turn it all into compost material.

The ephemeral beauty of the garden is a metaphor for our own lives. And long experience has led me to a profound insight that can help us make sense of these complicated feelings:

Life is like an ear rub.

Find out how life is like an ear rub by reading the full post at Edible Front Range. To read more from John, click here. 

Growing more than vegetables

This beautifully written piece in the Denver Post is from Louise O. Young, who passed the Steele Elementary Community Garden every morning on her way to get coffee, while she was visiting her daughter and grandson from Massachusetts. 

An excerpt:

Behind a chainlink fence, I saw turned plots of soil, compost bins, neatly stacked painted wooden signs and small picnic tables. I glanced back at the nearby building before continuing my walk to the coffee shop. On the way back, cup in hand, I lingered. In the corner of the lot, next to the gardening area, was a short, winding trail through what looked to be native grass plantings.

It was pint-sized, a perfect magical path for children, both beautiful and playful. Continuing along the sidewalk, I was surprised to see that this was all part of a school.

In subsequent journeys for morning coffee, I noticed more enticing elements and began looking forward to finding them. I spotted a weather station set up in the garden area, close to the colorful work tables, purple, blue and green. I noticed letters of the alphabet on the side of the play apparatus for the younger students. Large black and white renditions of the phases of the moon were attached to the fencing on a nearby play field where students would see them as they circled the sandy track. Colorful banners designed by the children hung from the posts by the doors.

Steele School Garden is a Denver Urban Gardens community garden, operated in partnership with Slow Food Denver. To read the entire article, click here. To learn more about DUG's school garden and nutrition education programs, click here. 

Fairview Harvest Fest in the Post

The Denver Post has a great photo gallery from Sunday's Harvest Festival at DUG's Fairview Elementary School Garden. Click to view. 

Photo by Julie DeHaas, The Denver Post

Breaking Through Concrete

Do you know about Breaking Through Concrete? Check out their mission:

The Breaking Through Concrete Tour (BTC Tour) will document the American urban farm movement. Despite hundreds of farm and garden projects taking hold in major cities, the urban farm remains a misunderstood and overlooked part of our food production system. We will bring to life the diverse projects that are, in distinct ways, transforming our built environments and creating jobs, training opportunities, local economies, and healthy food in our nation’s biggest cities. The BTC Tour will put a face on this new food movement and inspire the growing connection between people, place, and food.

They stopped by to see us earlier this summer. In addition to some beautiful photos and narratives, they produced a few really fantastic videos featuring some of DUG's community gardeners. 

Dig DUG from Charlie Hoxie on Vimeo.

Dispatch 2 :: DUG from MainStreetMedia on Vimeo.

Read more about their travels here.