by Delphina Liles, AmeriCorps Community Health Promoter
Mason Matters 2010-2011
During these ten months as a Community Health Promoter and AmeriCorps member in Mason County, I’ve needed to continually find sources of renewal in order to meet the demands of the community that I was serving. These sources have come in many forms, including the tangible fruits of the garden program that we’ve built in Shelton.
HOPE is a school and community garden that nourishes students and residents with access to fresh produce and experiential education. HOPE is an acronym that stands for our mission of Hands-On Personal Empowerment, accomplished by the simple act of sowing seed.
Between January and April, over 200 children have passed through the gates of HOPE. We’ve planted sixteen raised beds that have themes of pizza, sweet treats, and exploration. The growing season has been difficult, however, and we’ve just begun to harvest in our summer day camp. Thus, the garden has been teaching us lasting skills of patience and perseverance, qualities that apply to every realm of our lives. The students have often been the best examples of this, celebrating each pea and lettuce leaf that makes it into our salad bowl.
As my time comes to a close, and I find myself questioning the impact the garden program had on the community and the children that it served. Yet, the children have taught me to celebrate the small stuff, reminding me that we won’t always see the impact of our work.
Heifer International, a non-profit that promotes sustainable development and self-sufficiency, promotes this concept as “passing on the gift”. With every contribution that we give to our communities, we give a gift that is renewed over and over again, sometimes with no visible validation.
A great example of this kind of gift happened earlier this year when Lorna, Katharine, Kristina, and Onika from the Washington Health Foundation invited all of the Community Health Promoters to Seattle to share our stories. During this time Katharine taught us to make raw fruit tarts. The activity was fun, healthy, and creative and I had the pleasure to teach the students the recipe on our last day of the after school program. The students pressed out their pie crusts and loaded them with berries and peaches before devouring them with gusto. They learned that preparing food isn’t always about the recipe but about how it makes you feel, physically and emotionally. This is just one of the examples of the gifts that have come my way in this period of my work.
Knowing that I had a support network of the Washington Health Foundation and the eleven other Community Health Promoters has been incredibly encouraging. I want to thank every one of you for making this year a possibility for me. In the months ahead I know that the lessons that I’ve learned will keep cropping up and I’ll be sure to celebrate each one!
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