
Beverly may still be outside working on clean up as I write this, but we can announce that we have finished!
RIGC has upgraded our entire garden pathway system. Today Stephano came to get us started. Then Neal showed up to help for more than two hours. And then, Zamir and his father arrived for two more solid hours of shoveling and wheelbarrow toting. Next came Elena and Iliada and Michael and Karen Laurence and Cynthia and Sally! Vaughn kept the wagon tires filled with air. Everyone showed up today as so many have also shown up throughout this long project! Kwasi joined us and was still tamping down the paths with Sally, Cynthia, and Beverly when I left.
Hilda brought food, as did Iliada, Elena, Anthony and a wait-listed future gardener, Eugenia. Jenna took pictures. Anthony watched the front sign up area. Zachary helped his mom give instructions and was quite excited. He "saw" this project begin at age 2 and is now helping its completion at age 4.
Our many workdays over the past two years have so often been like this: filled with a steady stream of willing volunteers and helpers.
We have leveled and shoveled and raked and tamped and swept and upgraded all of our pathways. We began on March 21, 2015 in a wet spring snow. We are finishing today, October 7, 2017, on a warm, summery autumn day. Thanks to so, so many who were able to show up for this three year project. We have had RIGC volunteers from age 3 to age 80 plus. We have had students joining us for community service projects (with a shout out to the Blue Wreath volunteer club from UNIS). A very special thanks to our CCNYC grant in 2016 which allowed us to do double the work in one year. People have given what they could: a little raking, sweeping, cold drinks, email announcements, donations, 1/2 hour to many hours!
These wonderful, accessible pathways frame our gardens. They give us a beautiful base to celebrate as RIGC reaches our 25th year at this site! Thank you, Beverly, for your vision, research, faith, persistence, steady guidance, and constant teaching during this infrastructure project. I have learned so much and made friends and wonderful memories.