It takes an Academy to raise a garden, or at least to beautify one.
Nearly a dozen children of Queen Street Academy, a local afterschool program, spent their day off from their respective schools painting sheds at Kinston’s community garden.
“On teacher work days or days where the kids aren’t in school, we operate all day,” said the Academy Director Jane McAllister. “(It is) kind of like a summer camp. We wanted to come out, reach out to the community and get the Queen Street Academy kids involved.”
With supplies provided by the garden, Academy children and administrators braved chilly winds to fill in sketches of fruit, flowers and tools such as shovels.
“I had to rest for a few minutes because my hands were freezing,” said 14-year-old Jacob Rhodes, who used a break to rave about ECU basketball. “I like painting out here, I just like it.”
The project was an extension of the city’s efforts to revive a major corridor. In September, Kinston received a $100,000 Community Development Block Grant that city officials used to revitalize the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard strip.
Combined with $25,000 of city funds, the grant’s purpose was to improve general aesthetics on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, such as paving sidewalks and planting trees, and to make it more appealing by removing some of the abandoned properties.
The five acres where the community garden stands was an abandoned junk yard damaged by a flood in 1999. Master Gardener Lee Albritton said the garden efforts — investing nearly $30,000 without much financial support from the local government — are in conjunction with the city’s project to revitalize the area.
“We see our project as sort of leveraging that investment by the city to improve the aesthetics of this corridor that comes through east Kinston,” he said. “Plus, this is an important gateway to Kinston, and we want to beautify this gateway for people coming in.”
He added the garden was a good example of how to put an abandoned space to a productive use.
“All this is stuff that we are mining and getting out of the soil to make room for gardening, so we’re constantly picking up glass, stone and metal,” said Albritton as he looked at multiple buckets of raw materials lacing the garden fencing. “Hopefully over time, we’ll have it cleaned up. We’re trying to create this place where it would be attractive for parents and kids to … be outside and develop a relationship with nature. Another factor (to the garden) is growing healthy children.”
Project Bloom is the official name for the plan to restore the land via the garden and a planted fruit orchard, which includes apple and pear trees. In the garden’s second growing season, there are strawberries, mixed greens and cabbage among the crops planted. Community members or organizations can rent plots for $15 per year and use any supplies on site.
“The garden allows families to come out and have access to land, water and tools they need to grow food,” Albritton said.
He continued, “We’re trying to address hunger and childhood obesity. The keys to addressing those are access to food — healthy food — and, of course, exercise. Kids need to be outdoors. It’s really important to their development.”
The Academy children climbed stepstools to reach higher drawings to paint on the shed. They ran from side to side when they finished filling in one sketch, needing new colors or even a new brush.
“I had that brush when I started painting,” said Nicholas Harvey, 8, while looking towards a faulty paintbrush. “It wouldn’t (paint) like this brush would.”
After switching, he said, “I like just to have fun painting.”
Tracy Gouge, Queen Street Academy program director, stepped back to supervise the young painters and said, “Hopefully, (the kids will take away) a sense of community, learn to work together, help benefit the community and make it a better place to grow up.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.