Maria jumped on our vegetable rescue for Bishop Gibbons with great energy and skill. I’ve never known anyone like her; I love her more and more every day.
She is beautiful on the inside and the outside and genuine in both. Everything we do almost ends up being fun.
First, we went to John Rieger’s Country Products Store; he has donated as many vegetable plants as we can carry to the Community Service Program run by Sue Silverstein at Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons High School in Schenectady, New York.
There are all kinds of vegetable plants – pepper, eggplant, tomatoes, onions, and scallions.
Maria spent several hours in the hot sun, placing the plants into buckets and ensuring they had water.
My job is to keep them healthy until we take them to Bishop Gibbons on Thursday.
Maria will help plant them while I do some interviews. Many thanks to John Rieger for these donations. Planting season is over soon, and we need to get some of these into the ground this coming week.
Sue is in charge of the Community Service program at Bishop Gibbons, that are an integral part of the Catholic Schools curriculum and is especially important for the refugee students as a way of interacting with local people and teaching social and civic responsibility in a new land.
Two beautiful gardens at Bishop Gibbons are neglected and in poor shape. One is on the outside and the other in a beautiful indoor atrium.
Sue wants one to be a flower garden; the students will care for the flowers and bring them to nursing homes close to the school.
This will happen next Spring. The Army Of Good raised $300 to pay for the floral bulbs, which will be planted in the Fall.
The other will be a vegetable garden, thanks to John Rieger, that will be planted right away with some placed into buckets so they can be kept alive through the summer.
That needs to happen quickly. These vegetables will go to food pantries in the Schenectady area.
This is an excellent program for the school and the students. So is the fantastic art program Sue is planning. We will put up her Art Wish List next Wednesday or Thursday. Refugee students appreciate what it is to be helped and are generous and eager to help others.
Maria will teach a quilting class at the school (lap quilts for the nursing home), and I’ll conduct a Creative Writing Class.
(You can donate to the refugee fund at any time, via Paypal, [email protected] or Venmo, Jon-Katz@Jon-Katz-13, in any amount or by check, Refugee Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. And thanks.
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