By PAM SCHEHL
News Staff Reporter MOUNT VERNON — Community Roots is a place where the public can reconnect with the out-of-doors. Located at the end of West Gambier Street in Mount Vernon, Community Roots occupies the Urban Arbors facility in the area once known as Glass Gardens.
Holly Trask, president of the Community Roots board, said the nonprofit is a totally volunteer organization dedicated to helping people get back to nature.
“I see kids attached to their electronics all the time,” the veteran educator said. “I’ve always felt the need to get them back outside. Gardening is therapeutic for children. Being outside is essential for healthy childhood development — emotional, physical and spiritual. We are offering garden plots and greenhouse space to the community for gardening (five are currently in use) and planting an additional three plots to donate harvest to the Knox County Gleaning Program. We want to create a handicap-accessible area for gardening; partner with agencies that offer work and life enrichment programs; and design gardens and places that provide unique educational opportunities for the community.”
The fledgling organization is starting out with baby steps. Community Roots holds just a few community garden plots, dedicated areas with heirloom potatoes and tomatoes, and a play plot where children can just putter as they please.
“I want it to be a joyful place,” said Trask, “a placewhere people can be in the out-of-doors stress free.”
Community Roots also offers monthly activities, open to everyone, but focusing on helping children in foster care or connected with hospice in some way.
In May, children from Hospice grief groups visited Community Roots and planted some things that are known for their aroma therapy attributes, such as lavender and rosemary. They also planted some pumpkins, squash and herbs, including dill, cilantro and basil.
Kathy Wantland, bereavement coordinator with Hospice, said it was a very positive experience for the children.
“We have kids from ages 6to 17. At Community Roots, they get to participate, work the ground up, get to plant, get to see the end product,” she explained. “They had the opportunity to be hands-on, to do something for somebody else, to see some beauty. Working in the dirt can be very therapeutic. When you are doing something with your hands, it gives you a chance to also interact, to talk with peers and adults who are safe, who can be a support and companions as the kids are working through their grief. They are building relationships with other people that could be going through the same or some other things.”
June’s activity was building birdhouses from gourds, and July’s was soil-testing.
Soil testing will also be offered at Community Roots’ open house on Saturday, Sept. 9, from 10 a.m. to noon. Trask said people can bring soil from their home and have it tested to get tips for prepping their soil for next year, or for children to do as a fun science activity.
Other activities at the open house will be making clay creations out of clay dug from a local stream and making biodegradable soap with botanically-based ingredients made from plants grown on site.
For more information or to get involved, email communityrootsohio@ gmail, call 740358-0680, or on Facebook through the Urban Arbors Greenhouse page.
Photo courtesy of Holly Trask Creating birdhouses out of gourds is one of the many activities for children at CommunityRoots in Mount Vernon.
