GAGE PARK
ENGLEWOOD
Compiled By Jocelyn Vega Neighborhood Captain
BEST GARDEN THAT COULD
Englewood Veterans Garden
Since 2015 the Englewood Veterans Garden has relied on referrals from the recreational therapy program at the VA to provide the help that garden leader Cordia Pugh needed to keep things shipshape. According to gardener Ron Stacy, from 2015 to 2019 the garden could reliably count on ten to fifteen veterans to get involved each year, helping plant and weed the raised vegetable beds and tend to maintenance of the space, a former vacant lot on 56th and Hermitage. Then, said Stacy, “2020 happened, and you had COVID. So everybody disappeared.” Stacy, himself a U.S. Navy veteran, has been volunteering at the garden since its inception, and wanted to stay engaged. It was left to him, Pugh, and her son Leonard to keep both the Veterans Garden and the Hermitage Street Community Garden across the street from falling into weedy disrepair. “It was so hard,” he said. “When I joined the garden, we always had these huge volunteer groups”—first-year college students and church groups—”throughout the spring, the summer, and the fall to make our gardens possible. When COVID hit, we lost those volunteer groups.” They did “alright” in 2020, Stacy said, but this year was all about changing the way they garden. It was a transitional year, in which—anticipating future years with few volunteers—the trio transformed both gardens to make them lower maintenance. In the persistently weedy ground between all the raised beds, they laid in an underlayer of cardboard or plastic, and then covered that up with wood chips. Voila, no more weeds. “It was a lot of work. It just consumed us, the entire year.” Now, he added, they’re gearing up to completely overhaul their composting setup. “A lot of what we're doing now is just to prepare for next year, right? Even if COVID is, is still affecting people's lives, people are getting more comfortable with doing things and being active again. And being that this is a garden. I think that's going to be one of the biggest things going to be able to promote is that you're going to be able to be in a safe environment ‘cause you're outside.” He may not have grown much this year—mostly cayenne peppers and kale—but the garden has been key to his mental health, Stacy said. Being able to come to the garden and read or meditate or listen to music was invaluable—which was the whole point of the garden in the first place. And, finally, he might get a little break: the first group of college student volunteers returned this month. (Martha Bayne) Englewood Veterans Garden, 5641 S. Hermitage Ave. (773) 245-3017. VETERAN GARDEN, COURTESY OF ENGLEWOOD VETERANS GARDEN
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t’s an honor to introduce three young Gage Park visioners at Gage Park Latinx Council, a queer, DACA, Latinx grassroots organization dedicated to strengthening identity and community in Gage Park. We joked about the summer heat before jumping into their “Best of Gage Park” locations. For them, these addresses mirror their childhoods, identities, and hopes to protect their neighborhood with honor. Gage Park has seen Jesus, Karen, and Fabian develop into their current form. Together, these three young people share what they hope for others to “see” what’s in their eyes about Gage Park. “If you could feel kindness [when reading this], I would like for that to be shown,” said Karen J. Dorado, a sixteen-year-old, Aries Sun rising, Mexican-American with she and her pronouns. “I want people from Gage Park to see how beautiful we really are. To see all this community, joy, kindness... [To see] how really close we could all be [by] working together. If we work together, we could help others see that as well because that's what community is all about—working together, trusting each other, and helping each other out.” Gage Park does not deserve its disappointing media representation of being “dangerous” as a Black, Indigenous, and people-of-color working-class community. Gage Park deserves community representation of struggle and strength. Fabian SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 43
