Community Garden breaks ground for pavilion

Posted: Thursday, September 3, 2009 12:00 am

Peter Adelsen Perspective staff writer | 0 comments

After working rain and sunshine, the Community Garden will be soon getting a pavilion to shade the volunteers on those inclement days. The groundbreaking for the project was Thursday afternoon at the Community Garden at the corner of Touby Pike and North Street.

Mayor Greg Goodnight, Chancellor Steve Daily of Ivy Tech Community College, Paul Marcellino of the Purdue Extension Office and Cindy Rush of the Community Garden broke the ground for the pavilion. The Community Garden is a partnership of the Howard County Master Gardeners, Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service-Howard County and Ivy Tech Community College.

The group that is building the pavilion is Leadership Kokomo Class of 2009 Team Two. Patty Boyd, a representative from Leadership Kokomo, said her group did several interviews with area agencies that would be a good community project.

"We felt like the Community Garden was like the greater good of more of Howard County," she said. "They help area agencies and pantries. We asked what we can do for them and they said they would like a shaded area."

Boyd mentioned that in the past, there had been situations where volunteers had fainted from the heat.

The pavilion will be at the north end of the garden, near the storage shed, said Cindy Rush, garden coordinator for the Community Garden.

The size will be 12 feet by 24 feet, and it will be a pull building structure with no side walls, said Kenny Ortman of Leadership Kokomo. The shelter will also include picnic tables, he said.

In the past, volunteers were crammed into the shed during storms, Rush said.

"One time we put an entire soccer team into the little shed," she said. "It's going to be wonderful that we will have some shelter for the volunteers."

The Community Garden has served various Howard County organizations including Coordinating Assistance Ministry (CAM), Crisis Center and the Kokomo Rescue Mission, as well as many others.

"Many of the organizations and food pantries that we help never were able to get fresh produce," she said. "Now these organizations are saving money by getting fresh vegetables instead of opening up canned vegetables."

So far this year, the Community Garden has harvested more than 8,500 pounds of produce going toward area organizations, Rush said.

As far as this year's pace, that is up in the air, she said.

"It's really hard to say," she said. "It's always really weather related. Last year we were harvesting cucumbers on a Monday and on that Wednesday beetles destroyed every plant."

Rush said she is thankful for the help Leadership Kokomo had done for the Community Garden.

"They have helped us in a lot of ways by brining awareness about the garden to Kokomo."

Other attendees at the groundbreaking ceremony included Chad Springer, Aaron Smith, Jason Julius, Misty Knisely, and Jennifer Jordan.

http://kokomoperspective.com/news/local_news/article_22c5fa74-614f-57ac-a9fc-03b085be2353.html