Access to Service
Reprinted with permission of
The Herald Journal
AmericaCorps worker Danessa Whittier builds a community garden Friday in Hyde Park. (Eli Lucero/Herald Journal)
By Matthew K. Jensen
Monday, August 18, 2008
Gardening can be back-breaking work, so the designers of a new community garden plot have created a spot where plant lovers of all abilities can grow plants - whether standing, kneeling or in a wheelchair.
An "accessible" garden is under construction in a field west of the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in North Logan where a crew from the Utah Conservation Corps' "Access to Service" initiative have their hands dirty, tending the large plot.
Blake Savage and other crew members arrived early the last few days to lay block foundations for the garden's raised beds. Savage, 41, mixed concrete in a wheelbarrow Friday and poured it into the blocks one by one. Working with the sloppy cement, he said, is his favorite part.
Savage said he got involved in the UCC after meeting Assistant Director Kate Stephens at an Options for Independence activity.
Stephens said the majority of the crew members are young adults who enjoy community involvement and making a difference. This crew isn't like others, though, she said. It's partly composed of individuals with disabilities.
"We're developing a model for including people with disabilities in Conservation Corps activities and that model is being used in Wisconsin and Minnesota," she added.
Crew leader and garden designer Jamie Mastro said the space is being built with wheelchairs in mind. Raising the planting beds 18 inches off the ground, she added, allows people to sit down while they garden.
The "bar" design of the beds also allows gardeners to reach across the width of the soil.
The crew also works closely with the U.S. Forest Service to evaluate and reconfigure trailheads and pathways to accommodate persons in wheelchairs.
"We spend half our time working on this garden and the other half working on campsites and trails in Logan Canyon," Mastro said.
Co-leader Andy Zimmer said one objective in creating the Access to Service crew was to change the "typical" make-up of a Conservation Corp.
"A traditional crew would be out doing pretty strenuous, back-country work. We wanted to bring a more universal aspect to the Corps so half the group are persons with disabilities," Zimmer said. "You realize how extraordinary everyone is. It's an eye-opening experience to see how these people maintain their independence as they live their lives. They carry on and do the exact same things that anyone else does."
The raised beds are still under construction but parts of the plot already have tall corn and growing squash.
