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City of Henderson (2019) Print
2019 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
This project created Henderson's first public community garden. Originally a demonstration garden with six raised beds, the City converted the plot at Heritage Park Senior Facility the guidance of Garden Farms of Nevada, whose mission is to help desert communities learn how to grow their own food. Improvements included new drip-irrigation tubing and fresh topsoil. Project organizers say a key goal was fostering community and giving older adults a change to socialize. In February 2020, the City held a planting party. After that, older adults began to meet at the garden, where they learned to grow produce to share with their neighbors. Although gardening activity paused during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City was able to harvest and donate crops to Henderson's Senior Grocery Program, which distributed the produce to local older adults.
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South Coffeyville, OK
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: South Coffeyville lacked spaces for cultural engagement and healthy food access, leaving older adults isolated and youth disconnected from heritage. To address this, the organization created a year-round community garden using Cherokee Nation heirloom seeds for a Three Sisters planting, adding raised beds, benches and solar lighting. Elders taught youth traditional gardening methods, fostering intergenerational bonds and reducing isolation. Harvests included corn, squash, tomatoes and herbs, and plans for food preservation workshops will extend the impact. At the ribbon-cutting, one attendee called it "a wonderful way for both our elders and youth to work together."
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
Estes Park, CO
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project made improvements to the Estes Valley Community Garden. The EVCG added six raised garden beds to make planting and harvesting comfortable for older gardeners and those with physical limitations. Project organizers also constructed a green waste storage box, which allows gardeners to toss their weeds rather than carry them home. Additionally, gardeners and visitors benefit from a new handwashing station, installed to increase safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project contributed to EVCG's ongoing efforts to donate plots and produce to a local food bank. Project organizers report the improvements attracted partners to the EVGC's new diversity initiative.
Providence, RI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Amos House, which serves unhoused and unemployed people and those living in poverty, developed a volunteer-managed garden to provide fresh ingredients for the organization's soup kitchen. Amos House installed four raised garden beds and two containers for growing herbs. The organization relied on labor from participants in its carpentry program and planted seeds donated by a local farm. Following construction of the 900-square-foot garden, Amos House recruited 20 volunteers age 50 and older to tend the garden. In the summer of 2019, the garden yielded produce valued at 6,500, which they used to prepare 15,000 meals. Residents of Amos House's shelter programs participate in gardening and harvesting, which project organizers say represented an important social activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Henderson, NV
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: As part of efforts to revitalize the Army Street corridor, the City of Henderson commissioned murals to decorate concrete benches along a pedestrian thoroughfare. The City hoped the 12 colorful benches would draw visitors to downtown businesses, including the Purple Penguin Snowcone Shack and City Lights Art Gallery. Today, the murals offer pedestrians -- and other visitors to the Downtown Senior Center -- a popular spot to snap a photo or sit down and rest. Project organizers say the art installations also sparked the City to develop its Arts and Culture Master Plan. And in the years since, funding for public art in Henderson has increased, resulting in 10 new mural installations.
Henderson, NV
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Bikeability
Description: Part of larger efforts to revitalize its downtown, the City of Henderson sought to improve its walking and cycling infrastructure. Specifically, the Water Street District lacked up-to-code options for parking bikes. To address this, the city installed 25 artistic bike racks throughout the urban core. Additionally, the city commissioned two murals for the Henderson's downtown senior center. The city engaged local artists to design the racks and create the murals, with members of the city's Arts and Culture Council and Senior Citizens Advisory Commission weighing in on their final look. The project's organizers say this placemaking effort is the jumping off point for future public art installations throughout downtown. The city is also finalizing a new arts and culture master pan.
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