Browse > Home / Latest, News/Features / Students Transform Senior Center Garden

Students Transform Senior Center Garden

November 10, 2009

By REBECCA THOMAS

In Morris Heights, local youth have transformed a drab, concrete terrace into a colorful garden for local seniors.

This haven of greenery in the Heights Senior Center, on the second floor of 200 West Tremont Ave., boasts red and yellow chrysanthemums, purple cabbage flowers and the fresh green of tomato vines. All of it is the work of the young people in the South Bronx Job Corps’ facilities maintenance class.

On Oct. 1st, local residents and community leaders celebrated the garden’s official opening ceremony. Everyone present, from the seniors to Ken Small of the CAB, from Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson to the gardeners themselves, was moved by the beauty of the garden.

Sadie Jennings, who has been coming to the center for eleven years, was particularly delighted. Previously she says, this garden was an unused concrete terrace area with a few plants at the far end that she tended with another senior, Avvie McGraw.

Now it is a landscaped garden everyone wants to spend time in. “It’s so beautiful,” said Mirja Rodrigez, who comes to the center regularly.  ”Everyday I will come out here to sit.”

The opening ceremony was a lavish affair: cut flowers decorated white clothed tables, curried devil’s eggs and hot cider were just some of the delights served up on cocktail trays by Job Corps culinary students.

The ceremony culminated in the first citation Vanessa Gibson has given as assemblywoman. Citations pay tribute to public initiatives that benefit the community and this one recognized the Heights Senior Center’s role in beautifying Morris Heights with the garden.

“All too often we hear negative aspects and statistics they use to define this area. It’s projects like this we need to promote,” Gibson said as Rosalina Luongo, the director of the center, accepted the honor on its behalf.

Luongo in turn thanked the young people of the South Bronx Jobs Corps for their efforts. “The kids came in here, they did everything,” she said. “They are a blessing to our community.”

Luongo plans to open the garden to organizations such as the Job Corps, the Citizens Advice Bureau and local schools so that the whole community benefits.

When Luongo first envisaged the garden it was Margaret von Glahn at the South Bronx Jobs Corps who advised her to enlist the facilities maintenance class.

Jose Teves, the instructor, planned the garden. Then his class planted and tended the space. They trimmed the overhanging trees and painted the concrete steps and walls a light blue. It took about a week.

The garden runs the length of the building and is about 15 yards wide. At one end, rails allow easy access to the raised platform that holds an arc of huge flower-pots.

It is an ambitious and beautifully executed project.

As a result it inspired great hopes at the opening ceremony. Jennings and McGraw dream the project will expand to include a vegetable garden.

Even bigger hopes were voiced by Luongo and Kathyrn Speller, a local
resident. They hope that the large empty lot neighboring the garden can be acquired by the community and similarly converted into much needed public green space.

Written by admin · Filed Under Latest, News/Features 

Comments

Got something to say?