Our Hero, Dennis Finneran from Miami Victory Gardens, arrived at school at the somewhat ungodly hour of 7:30 a.m. yesterday. He pulled up in his white (and orange) stallion, a fully loaded U-Haul weighted down with gorgeous cedar planks and bags of black gold, stunning organic soil in a gazillion twisty-tied bags.
Unfortunately, despite her calm and charming attempts, Catherine, could not persuade our otherwise fabulous school maintenance man, Jorge to open the gates so the truck could pull up to our site.
So, instead, the guys—with almost no perceptible mumbling--pitched in to lug the 100 or so bags by hand from the loading dock, down the hall, down the stairs and into the beds.
That is, once those suckers got bolted together. Note for next time: bring extra drills, bits, and a power cord!! Okay, so, some of our holes were not exactly lined up. But, thanks to Ms. Fishman’s and Terry’s keen eyes and persistence, our beds were.
The Neighbors reporter and photographer, Paradis and Daniel were so very wonderful to have with us. Thanks, guys!
We had a real buzz going. And, yes, Catherine and I freaked out a bit. But with the help of a truly staunch crew of parent volunteers we recovered. Please take a bow: Terry, Neal, Teresa, Clara, Liz, Okan, Tiffany, Geane, Chino, Helen, Leslie, Kristin, Giancarlo, Steve, Helen, Adam, Andy, Leslie, Jaleh, Eric and Carmen!!
We managed to get the beds in just around 9:30 –only about half an hour past our deadline, which is actually very early if using a Miami watch.
The best part was that from the minute we got there, yesterday and today, kids swarmed like buzzing bees. "Can I help?", "I want to plant", "How can I join?"
And help they did. Each of the 508 South Pointe students shoveled dirt into the beds and few fifth graders planted our marigolds to help discourage bugs. They held their new and quite gorgeous royal blue SPE flags with new real pride.
Others settled in at the picnic tables to come up with their personal garden wish list. Daniella said “I want berries, just berries.”
Berries may take a while, but at least now we do have beds.
And I am sure, we will all sleep well tonight knowing what hard work we did to get our garden growing.
Next up: worms, seeds and bananas.
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