Hope in the Garden

By KYLE AND LISA -
Last weekend, I met up at Hope Gardens (an offshoot of Union Rescue Mission that helps women with children in abusive and/or violent circumstances get away from their surroundings and get back on their feet) with some members of the small group we started up for Lent through our church. We joined about 150 other volunteers and got our hands dirty, literally, helping with all sorts of projects around the facility located in beautiful Lopez Canyon in Sylmar.

Our group spent the morning tearing apart a big planter box that was sitting in front of the main dining hall. Apparently it gets in the way of the various vehicles on the property and some of the smaller children were getting hurt playing on and around it. We transplanted a bunch of plants, flowers and one tree, hauled a ton of dirt away via shovel & wheelbarrow and ripped out about 60 wood pillars that formed the wall for the planter.



This was my second time at Hope Gardens and one of the coolest things about volunteering here is playing and interacting with the kids as they all start making their way over to the dining hall for lunch. Wheelbarrow rides anyone? Besides that, one of the highlights was towards the end of the day when we had almost everything wrapped up besides removing this massive tree stump and the groundskeeper went and got a forklift and ripped the sucker out of the ground to the delighted cheers of the volunteers and kids gathered around.


The work was hot and dirty and tiring, but it always feels great to work with your hands and have something to show for it… especially if the work is for a great cause.

Before and After:


Comments

  1. Anonymous5/03/2010

    Good for you, helping others!

    ReplyDelete

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