Charles Frank Bivilacqua, Board Member of Loving Garland Green, gathering Texas Native Pecans for our December Fundraiser at 4022 Naaman School Road.
Loving Garland Green is moving forward as usual in the direction we intend. We expect to file as a nonprofit corporation with the state of Texas during the first week of December, and we officially begin our Texas Native Pecan Holiday Fund raiser tomorrow, December 1. We are selling the pecans in their shells at $5.00 a pound or for any additional price donors would like to contribute. Please call me at 972-571-4497 (Liz Berry) if you would like to purchase some and make a donation.
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Delores Elder-Jones is the very first Garland resident to order pecans from Loving Garland Green.
I got a telephone call from Delores today. She ordered five pounds of the Texas native pecans. I'll deliver them to her home tomorrow--an appropriate day. December 1 also happens to be Delores Elder-Jones Day here in Garland. Delores was honored in 2009 for her long-standing, dedicated service to the Garland community through her college community outreach work and volunteer service on numerous Garland community boards and agencies.
Delores is a very loving and giving person. Today I visited her Facebook and read that she is appealing to people to help a woman in need. This woman, named Flora, is currently living in a broken down motor home up by Lake Lavon. She has no transportation. The motor home has a blanket hanging where a door should be. She wears socks with flipflops for her shoes. She does have a coat and she has sweatpants, but that's about it.
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More Thanksgiving
A special thanks to the Mayor's office (and Mayor Athas) as well as to several Garland city departments: The Garland Engineering and Maps Department, the Garland Parks Department, the Garland Health Department and the Garland Water Department. So many folks from our local government have provided assistance to answer questions for members of Loving Garland Green as we continue to do our research and planning for the development of this site as the Garland Agricultural Center and Community Garden.
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Additional Loving Garland Green Activities Planned for December
Anita Flores, Loving Garland Green Treasurer and Robert Opel, board member, have deposited 7 large leaf bags at the site. At the next meeting of the board (December 5 - 6:30 - my house) I will propose that we gather enough shipping pallets to build 4 compost bins during December. If you are interested in composting, here is the link to a video that illustrates how to build one of these bins [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2F8fEvx6N8]. With a little bit of luck, it should not cost us any thing as long as we can get the pallets for free. If you know of a free source for these pallets, please call me at 972-571-4497.
To Summarize the Loving Green Planned Activities for December:
1. Get registered as a nonprofit and filed with the IRS by December 25, 2013
2. Build and install at least four compost bins on site by December 25, 2013
3. Raise at least $1,000 with the Pecan Fund Raiser on or before December 30, 2013
4. Complete work on Loving Garland Green Website by December 25, 2013
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Loving Garland Green Has an Intended Result: A City of Gardens
Loving Garland Green has ambitions with roots that go deeper than a community garden. We hope to build and strengthen, if not transform, our local economy over the next two years by increasing the number of urban gardens in Garland to 50,000. Among other things, we hope to track the development of new gardens on our website by featuring many of them and showing the connectivity of these gardens to the increased prosperity of our community. We believe there is a direct correlation between the number of gardens in a city and the overall prosperity and happiness of its inhabitants.
We expect to see a diversity of business models arise in our community as a result of our promotion and educational efforts to raise awareness of the fun and profitability available to citizens who grow food in their back yards and even front yards. We expect to see many cottage industries appear on the scene. For example, as more people become aware of the ease and importance of composting, there will be an increased need perhaps for a local factory that produces compost bins.
Who wouldn't want to live in the City of Gardens?