MOUNT VERNON – The Town & Country Garden Club has a mission to learn the fundamentals of gardening and promote interest in civic beautification through grants to community entities. It is the mission of Knox County Job & Family Services to make the lives of children and families better. Recently, these missions intersected to bring to about a community enrichment project.
According to Susan Givens, Civic Affairs Chairperson for the Town & Country Garden Club, some of the club’s past beautification projects have included grants to the local Shade Tree Commission, to the Park District for planting and signage at various sites, to the Knox County Career Center Horticulture Program for software and improvements to the Children's Garden, and recently to the YMCA for landscape material, among others.
Funds for these projects are garnered through the club’s fundraising efforts, including a yearly silent auction. And then 2020 came. The club was unable to meet due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There would be no annual silent auction fundraiser. But club members would not let that deter them from their civic-minded mission.
The club’s membership, of which there are approximately 40, were asked to make a donation toward a grant to Knox County JFS, having learned from Director Matthew Kurtz and Bill Arnal, JFS maintenance supervisor at the Opportunity Knox Employment Center, that there was a desire to build and install raised garden boxes at the OKEC site. The new beds would eliminate erosion problems with the current garden and allow OKEC to produce even more fresh vegetables available to the participants in the agency's Work Experience Program and to Hot Meal sites on a daily basis to assist in feeding the community at large.
Givens invited Lowes and Long’s Lawn and Grounds Maintenance, a local landscaping company, to partner with the club with in-kind donations to meet the total required to build the beds. WEP participants and JFS maintenance staff worked to build 30 garden boxes at Opportunity Knox. They have planted several types of peppers, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, zucchini, green beans, peas, lima beans and onions.
“We’re so grateful for the Town and Country Garden Club’s support,” Kurtz said. “These improvements will be a great addition to our garden program.”
This collaboration of service/garden club, private businesses and local government, demonstrates that pulling together resources and know-how can create a bounty for the benefit of children and families.
