WEST ENGLEWOOD — Engineering students from Lindblom Math and Science Academy were using power tools and carrying wood to build two gardens they designed for the community on a sunny Saturday.
“It’s really amazing,” said 17-year-old Murphy Gay at the garden's Building Day event, 5641 S. Hermitage Ave. “I’m glad I get to be out here and work on this. It’s a lot of fun making the boxes and it’s really awesome seeing it all come together.”
And his classmate, 16-year-old Brenda Macias, feels the same.
“It’s good to know that my classwork and what I’m learning pays off, because we’re actually affecting the community,” she said.
Lindblom Principal Alan Mather attended the building day, along with Ald. Toni Foulkes (16th) and Will Garcia, a representative from Ald. Raymond Lopez's (15th) office.
The students' instructor, Lawrence Bass, introduced his second- and third-year students to the community garden project at the beginning of the 2014-2015 academic year.
They are expanding the existing Hermitage Street Community Gardens, which are overseen by Cordia Pugh, an Englewood resident. She first started the community garden in 2011. Pugh said it was Bass who first approached her and asked if his students could work with her.
With 21 students, he formed the Global Design Initiatives Colloquium that allowed them to use their in-class skills outside the classroom. They began creating a model for the new community space, which included designing the new garden structures.
Bass said there will be a gazebo, benches, a storage structure, pathways and more. Students are even working on designing the website. About six students from the school’s freshman design class and another five from the ROTC group worked with the Global Design Team, Bass said.
“It is really gratifying to see that the students have driven this project all the way through, to the end,” he said. “It has been student-powered from day one.”
The gardens initially consisted of 30 individual plots that were originally donated by local nonprofit Growing Home. Pugh saw a need to add more plots so she acquired three vacant lots in September and October through Abraxas Geo Group for the 2015 growing season.
The goal is to finish the community garden by the end of June, but the 120 plots are ready for families to use now. Pugh said that families in the neighborhood have already began to plant seeds. Pergolas and brick pathways will be added soon, too.
“This is awesome, it’s really unbelievable,” Pugh said. “There are more than a hundred families that are growing their own food to offset hunger and to gain more food security in this community.”
The second garden will become a veterans' meditation garden and should be ready by the end of the month as well. Veterans from the Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center who have mental and emotional troubles will be able to enjoy the garden, Pugh said.
Parents and volunteers joined the students Saturday to help dig up dirt, cut the wood and hammer nails.
Brenda’s mother, Alicia, who lives in Marquette Park, said that initially she wasn’t sure what the class project would entail, but she supported her. She said Brenda had never used a power tool before or worked in a garden until taking Bass’ class.
“This is her first time so it’s a good experience for her,” Alicia Macias said, who added that Brenda has been a positive influence on her younger brother. “This is his second time coming to help, he really looks up to her so these are things she’s teaching him, teaching him how to volunteer and work hard.”
Mather said he was in awe of the results of the project.
“I’m just so incredibly proud of them, they’ve blown me away with the work they have done,” he said.
“This is what education can be. We should be taking students and having them realize how the education they have in the classroom can be applied. If we’re not making that connection for them, we’re failing as educators, so what {Bass] is doing is beautiful," he said
The smaller plots are $25 and the larger ones are $35. Both come with starter kits, which include a food growing box, seeds, plants, hand tools and gloves. To become a member of the Hermitage Street Community Gardens, call and leave a voicemail at 773-217-0329.
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