ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997 TAG: 9703310089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CAPE CHARLES
SOURCE: KAREN JOLLY LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
Residents fear they won't have money to buy food as welfare benefits begin to evaporate.
Trash and overgrown weeds lay exposed on a lot in the end of town. There, college students on spring break worked beside members of Concerned Citizens of Cape Charles to dig a vegetable garden.
People in this neighborhood fear they won't have enough money to buy food as welfare benefits begin to evaporate under federal reforms.
``This garden will help when there's nothing to put on the table,'' said resident Diane Williams. Jobs are scarce, she said, and rents are rising for degenerating rental property.
But as 23 students from Indiana University and Plattsburg State College in New York pulled trash from the empty lot and stripped weeds, they were discouraged by the response of some of the young people from the neighborhood who stood around watching or sat in lawn chairs.
``The older people have more hope than the younger people because they know the way it was,'' said Plattsburg State student Keri-rae Richardson.
The students decided to call the project the Garden of Hope.
``Maybe if they see the vegetables grow, the community will grow, and they will grow themselves,'' Plattsburg State's Katie Boulay said of the town's young people. ``I think they have to understand that they make their own community.''
Marian Ames and the people with Concerned Citizens of Cape Charles agreed. The garden project was one of seven the group members organized to improve their neighborhood.
Last year, they plugged into the Alternative Spring Break Program through a group called Volunteers for Communities. This year, 61 students from Boston College, Holy Cross, Indiana University and Plattsburg State came to Cape Charles to help.
``We chose to come here after reading a description of Concerned Citizens of Cape Charles,'' said Kristina Strinka, site leader from Indiana. ``We were impressed that it was a group of people who wanted to get together and help themselves.''
The students ate and slept at the First Baptist Church annex. They were allowed to bring only one bag on the trip, so most wore the same clothes day after day. When given a choice about the day's schedule, many voted to take a shower rather than eat.
They liked the people of Cape Charles, particularly small children.
Over the course of two weeks, volunteers painted houses and a church, replaced a rotted roof on a building slated to become a community center, and dug the Garden of Hope.
``This is a catalyst for people going back to the old ways, a community helping one another,'' said resident Margaret Kellam.
The plot was planted with beets, string beans, butter beans, tomatoes, greens, cucumbers and squash, as well as flowers and shrubs.
Three landowners, including Doris Horton, donated the use of their property for the group garden. Food grown there will be free to whoever harvests it, but the citizens' group expects people in the neighborhood to keep it weeded and watered.
Townspeople like Ms. Kellam are confident that local youths will eventually keep an interest in the garden.
``This is what community is all about,'' Kellam said. ``Maybe they'll show some of these guys that are standing around how it's supposed to be done.''
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: TAMARA VONINSKI/LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE. Sixty-oneby CNBstudents, including Ladebra Ross and John While, joined with
concerned citizens to turn trash and weeds into a Garden of Hope.