At around 8:30 every Saturday morning from Easter to
Thanksgiving, a volunteer unlocks the gate at the front entrance to the garden,
turns on the water, and sets out buckets of gloves and hand tools. Eventually,
other volunteers join her: sometimes, they trickle in individually, quietly
stowing their backpacks under the shed before immersing themselves in the
tomato bushes; other times, large groups bustle in, bearing coffee and sign-up
sheets, wearing matching T-shirts.
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| April 13 2013 - Chicago Cares |
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| May 5 2013 - DePaul Vincentian Day of Service |
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| May 5 2013 - with Second City |
We never know what kind of help we’ll get on a Saturday.
Each workday is an aleatoric composition of community gardening, performed with
Cobraheads and rakes instead of detuned pianos. A workday may involve a handful
of poncho-clad folks hunched over muddy beds, or it could be swirl of the summer-besotted,
clamoring for task assignments. We have had as few as three volunteers and as
many as thirty.
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| June 1 2013 - with Second City |
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| June 8 2013 - with Chicago Cares and Second City |
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| June 15 2013 - with Second City |
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| June 22 2013 - with Chicago Cares and Buena Park neighbors |
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| June 29 2013 - with Buena Park neighbors |
The tasks we complete depend on the people who choose to
join us. When our ranks are small, we focus on getting the harvest ready for
delivery; when flush with willing workers, we expand to tackling bindweed and cutting
up branches for compost.
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| July 6 2013 |
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| July 20 2013 - with Chicago Cares and Buena Park neighbors |
The elements common to our horticultural jam sessions are energy
and compassion. I continue to be surprised by how hard so many people work to
grow and harvest food that they will never themselves consume, but give freely
to people who they may never meet.
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| August 3 2013 - with Second City |
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| August 10 2013 - with Chicago Cares and Second City |
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| August 24 2013 - with Chicago Cares |
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| August 31 2013 - with John (center), an Irishman who stopped by during his travels around the world, volunteering with organic gardens |
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| September 7 2013 - with Americorps |
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| September 14 2013 - with Chicago Cares, Loyola, UIC, and Second City |
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| September 21 2013 - with Entertainment Cruises |
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| October 5 2013 - with Chicago Collegiate Scholars |
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| October 12 2013 - with Chicago Cares | | |
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| October 19 2013 - with Chicago Collegiate Scholars |
