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Gettysburg-Whitlock Bay Development Corporation (2024) Print
2024 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
This project will convert a vacant lot into a downtown community garden. Many older adult residents live in apartments that lack garden areas, so the space will allow them to cultivate home-grown produce.
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Sheridan, WY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will create a patio garden with flowers, vegetables, and seating to promote well-being for tenants and the community. It will provide fresh vegetables, enhance socialization, and offer a relaxing space for older adults.
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.
South Tucson, AZ
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The Primavera Foundation improved the La Capilla neighborhood's community garden by building raised bed planters, adding ADA-compliant benches and making garden walking paths more accessible. In addition, the Foundation purchased ergonomic and adaptive tools, since the majority of residents who use the garden are older adults, often accompanied by their grandchildren. The garden improvements coincided with the City of South Tucson's Greenway Redevelopment Project, which brought public art to the neighborhood. To celebrate local residents' heritage, project organizers also installed a walking path to a mural located next to the garden. That mural -- created by student artists -- pays homage to the Yaqui and Mexican American cultures. Since this project's completion, the Foundation has made similar upgrades to another community garden.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Highmore, SD
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: The project will rebuild a community swimming pool and make it more accessible for older adults and people with disabilities by adding features such as zero-depth entry, an ADA-compliant lift and in-pool seating.
Fort Pierre, SD
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: To provide residents the chance to grow fresh produce, the City of Fort Pierre began construction of its community garden in 2018. To kick off the project, organizers cleared the lot and constructed 24 raised beds, each including their own water spigot. The City also planted fruit trees at the site. As work continued in 2019, the City erected a fence around the gardens, added wood chips to create mud-free walkways between plots and installed picnic tables. That year all beds in the garden were rented. In 2020, the City added an accessible picnic table with an umbrella. Two local restaurants use the garden to raise produce for their menus and about 75 percent of gardeners renting plots are 60 or older. Project organizers report the success of the garden inspired other efforts to encourage healthy living in Fort Pierre, including improvements to the local trail system, a mural downtown and new lighting on a pedestrian bridge.
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