Earl McCoy Jr. at work.
Maya McFadden Photos
Youth gather to clean up Shepard Street Garden.
A decade ago Addie Kimbrough was teaching her son how to cut grass and prune bushes. Now that he’s 23 years old, she’s teaching a new generation of neighborhood youth about yard work.
Kimbrough did this work at Newhallville’s newly sprouted Shepard Street garden. She was joined by a group of 20 volunteers who helped to clean up the green space and prep it for the upcoming growing season.
The community garden at 96 Shepard St, adjacent from Kimbrough’s home, was put together by Kimbrough last spring.
She and the volunteers looked forward to another year of providing neighbors with community grown squash, corn, eggplant, green beans, and cucumbers.
The group gathered Saturday morning in cloudy cool weather. Throughout the three-hour clean up, the crew huddled under a single tent during several rain spurts that lasted as long as 10 to 20 minutes.
Volunteers tilled the garden beds and raked the excess leaves, which filled more than 40 bags.
Kimbrough plans to begin gardening in May once the space is cleaned up. A total of nine beds were cleaned and prepped by the volunteers Saturday.
Kimbrough said she hopes for the garden to provide neighbors with not only gardening skills and free fresh food but also an outlet for youth to meet older mentors and to stay off the streets.
“Our kids needs help. We can’t just expect them to get it on their own,” Kimbrough said.
Middle-schoolers Nasir Bryce, 11, Makhi Caple, 13, Thomas Edwards, 13, and Calvin Dumas, 12, joined the Saturday clean-up. They helped fill the garden beds with cow manure and peat moss, rake leaves, and eat donuts.
Saturday was the first time the students learned to do yard work. “I thought we were going to watch basketball,” Bryce said.
Others thought they were going to a cookout or a garden tour.
When Kimbrough heard that the boys didn’t have the greenest of thumbs she told them that she taught both her son and grandson how to mow grass and prune bushes. “You guys are going to need this,” she said to the boys. “This garden is here for you.”
Arthur Edwards and Dan Blackmon are two of four directors of the Oriental Lodge No 6 Free & Accepted Masons Prince Hall Inc. along with Alex Miller and Winston Ware. The duo brought the middle schoolers to help at the garden as a part of their new youth mentorship program. The group started this January.
Albertus Magnus College staff members Earl McCoy Jr., and Samantha Miller joined the Saturday garden clean-up as a part of the college’s Newhallville Community Project which dedicates staff and students community services to neighborhood initiatives.
Miller, who works in marketing as a Digital Content Producer, joined McCoy, the college’s assistant director of career services, at the garden clean-up two days after the college’s dedicated community day of service. Miller attends Newhallville community management team meetings as an Albertus representative and heard of the opportunity at a meeting.
“Newhallville is Albertus’s backyard,” Miller said. “We want to be present and connect with the community.”
Rachel Golden, Mikayla Wojciak, Annaliese Kaufman, and Jennifer Martinez.
The Saturday clean up was also saw help from Quinnpiac University sophomores Jennifer Martinez, Mikayla Wojciak, Annaliese Kaufman, and Rachel Golden. The group was assigned to the Shepard Street project for the university’s day of service happening Saturday.
The group worked to rake and shovel up the fall leaves at one corner of the garden.
“It’s one of our responsibilities to make sure we don’t just come for eight months every year and contribute nothing,” Golden said.
The group agreed the Saturday project was better than when they were assigned to clean up neighborhood garbage on the street for last year’s day of service.
Members of the Center Church On The Green also showed up to work, having heard about the clean-up during an announcement at worship services the previous Sunday by Kimbrough.
While cleaning the group harvested the last of the garden’s turnips and some took them as a reward for the hard work.
The garden also has a message board at its center that allows for visitors to note down what watering and upkeep was done throughout the week.
Last year was Kimbrough’s first time gardening. She continues to work in the garden daily and hopes to get help from her neighbors and local youth this season.
“This is an outlet for me,” Kimbrough said.
Kimbrough grilled up hotdogs and provided drinks and chips for the group of volunteers after nearly three hours of work in the multiple on and off down pours.
Kimbrough was the last to head home, ready to shower and relax for the remaining Saturday. She said she planned to head to church Sunday morning to “pray over the garden” and give thanks for the volunteer support.
Thank you to Addie Kimbrough, Arthur Edwards and Dan Blackmon of the Oriental Lodge No 6 Free & Accepted Masons Prince Hall Inc, Alex Miller, Winston Ware, Albertus Magnus College staff members Earl McCoy Jr., and Samantha Miller, Quinnpiac University sophomores Jennifer Martinez, Mikayla Wojciak, Annaliese Kaufman, and Rachel Golden, Members of the Center Church On The Green, and all the other volunteers who worked together on the community garden. This is a wonderful way to develop community ties, grow healthy food in a healthy food desert, and develop gardening and landscaping skills, and create civic pride and civic responsibility. It is projects like this that make our communities stronger and healthier.