Seniors hope sale weekend cultivates plans for greenhouse
By Burton Cole
FALMOUTH — Kelly Sturgill hopes to see the Pendleton County Senior Center grow. Not just in numbers, but with flowers and vegetables, too.
The Senior Center, 1111 Chipman St., is joining the biannual Pendleton County-Wide Yard Sale this weekend in hopes for raising the rest of the money it needs to buy a greenhouse kit and equipment for its From Seed to Table for healthy aging project.
The countywide yard sale is set for 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The Senior Center’s yard sale will be 9 a.m. to 1:30 Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
Limited spaces in the center parking lot are available for other vendors to rent. Donations of clothes in good condition, home goods, toys and games — or cash — are accepted in advance of Saturday’s sail. Call the center at 859-951-1035 for information.
SEED TO TABLE
An accessible greenhouse will “provide year-round gardening opportunities for older adults,” according to Sturgill, center director. “This project will foster social interaction, improve mental well-being and promote healthy eating by allowing participants to grow their own vegetables, herbs and flowers in a safe environment.”
The center does have a raised beds garden across the street from the center, “which have been met with strong enthusiasm.
“However, participation has been limited by short growing seasons, unpredictable weather and accessibility changes,” she wrote in the project proposal.
Plans are to build the greenhouse right behind the Senior Center building for easy access in all weather. It will be covered by security cameras, as well.
Inside will be raised beds and hanging baskets to minimize the bending over or kneeling that can inhibit older gardeners.
“Everything’s going to be accessible for seniors,” Sturgill said. “The project will elevate the voices of older adults whose perspectives and talents are often overlooked.”
She’s also hoping that it will become a multigenerational project, bringing age groups together.
She envisions high school FFA students working side-by-side with the older gardeners to set up the beds, plant, cultivate and harvest.
Sturgill plans workshops on plant care, nutrition and sustainable growing methods. The Cooperative Extension Service already holds nutritional classes for seniors; now the group can expand to healthy cooking classes using fresh ingredients that the seniors themselves grew.
“We have a kitchen. We cook here,” Sturgill said. “Seniors can know they did that. They can take pride in that.”
In fact, the whole project is designed to foster strong feelings of ownership and pride, while increase not just interactions with each other but the community, she said.
Produce raised by seniors will help feed the community. The door’s open for other possibilities, such as community canning classes.
The idea, said Activity Director Ronda Ehrich, is to provide more opportunities for socialization, exercise and good health.
“We are very active,” Ehrich said. “We do four or five events a month to get people out.”
As people age, they tend to withdraw from social engagement, stay home, grow lonely, and become less healthy. They can feel like their usefulness is over and there is nothing for them to do anymore.
“You have to keep them busy,” Ehrich said. “You try to keep them active.”
“Keep them moving, keep them going, so they don’t hit that decline,” Sturgill said. “Time in nature and hands-on gardening has been shown to lower stress and improve mental and emotional wellbeing.”
TAKING CHARGE
An advisory council made drawn from the 48 participants (with room for more comers) chose the activities they’d like to pursue. Group shopping trips to interesting places with lunch stops are big.
Also among the favorites are the raucous and highly competitive chair volleyball games at the center.
There are exercise machines, educational classes that include unmasking the latest scams operating in the area, and open spaces to sit to read or work puzzles.
A year-round greenhouse is something that excites center participants.
Sturgill has applied for a Spirit of Public Health Mini-Grant last year through the Three Rivers District Health Department. The Senior Center requested $1,955.56 to buy a greenhouse kit, lightweight tools that are easier for older gardeners, gloves, seeds, pots, growing mats—whatever it takes to get things going.
“We didn’t get the grant,” Sturgill said. “We told some of the seniors, and they said, ‘Well, we can get the money ourselves.’”
They raised $80 with a recent craft show, and Sturgill hopes for a big boost during yard sale weekend.
They’d love to raise the cash quickly enough to buy the greenhouse kit and tools to be up and running this summer, but reality is that the soonest it is likely to happen is this fall—which would be the perfect time to be harvesting pumpkins.