Joy Avenue Pathway Work Party - Saturday, May 18

[Peter Guttchen]

To NENA members and other interested folks,

 

Come join your neighbors on Saturday, May 18 from 10 am to 1 pm to help us spruce up the Joy Avenue Pathway and Edible Forest Garden in preparation for our "No Shovels, No Sweat" Grand Opening Dedication and Celebration on June 8.  Even if you can only spare an hour, we'd welcome your help!

 

At this event we'll be cleaning up the site and laying down more cardboard, wood chips, and recycled asphalt. Wear sturdy shoes, dress for the weather, and please bring a pitchfork or shovel, work gloves, and a wheelbarrow (if you can) to the work party.   If you don't have tools or work gloves, we'll have some available for you to use.  The pathway is located in the 1600 block of Bethel Street about 1.5 blocks north of the SF Bakery.

 

Thanks to the more than 20 folks who joined us at our last work party on March 23.  We got rid of the two large piles of yard debris on the site, filling a 30-yard dropbox in the process.  With the piles gone, you can see through the entire pathway corridor.  It's a glorious view!  We also planted strawberries, laid down cardboard and chips, cleared an area where someone had been camping, and removed chips from the small starts we planted last year.  Since last Spring, we've planted more than 200 edible plants and fruit and nut trees in the corridor.  It looks like almost 100% of them survived.  

 

A special shout out is in order for the boys from Touchstone, and to Trish, one of the staff from Touchstone, for their hard work.  A group from Touchstone has helped us at all of our Joy Avenue work parties except for one.  Without them, we could not have completed this project.

 

This project, funded in part by a generous grant from the City of Olympia's neighborhood matching grant program, is making it safer and easier for students to walk and bike to Roosevelt and Reeves and for all of us to get active and get connected.  More information can be found on NENA's website.  Just click on the Joy Avenue Pathway tab.  

 

We look forward to seeing you on the 18th

 

Best regards,

 

Peter Guttchen

NENA Vice President

pgut...@gmail.com