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Vassalboro, ME

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: This town will add raised garden beds with benches outside Vassalboro's municipal office. The new community garden will serve as an outdoor classroom and gathering space and will allow residents to grow healthy food.

Lexington, KY

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: Organizers with Seedleaf hoped to provide a more comfortable experience for the many older adults who maintain one of its free community gardens. To do this, Seedleaf provided ergonomic garden tools -- including shovels and trowels -- designed for people with arthritis to use. They also purchased portable, raised seats that gardeners can place alongside garden beds, as well as a foldable wagon to collect harvested vegetables and a shed to house the new tools. To provide a space for visitors to rest and socialize, the nonprofit worked with a local carpenter to build two sturdy, cedar benches.

Kansas City, MO

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: The grant will turn a formerly blighted vacant lot into a community garden and interactive art installation.

Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects

East Hartford, CT

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Trails

Description: To improve its South Meadows Greenway trail network, Goodwin University created a wheelchair accessible picnic area. The University installed four picnic tables with seating in a location overlooking the Connecticut River. In collaboration with the East Hartford Senior Center, university officials then hosted trail walks with the goal of increasing healthy outdoor recreation for residents of the largely industrial City of East Hartford. Goodwin's campus is located on a former EPA-designated brownfield site, which the school cleaned up. Through its improvements to trails, the university hopes to improve livability in East Hartford.

Bolton, CT

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Park enhancements

Description: To help local older adults stay physically active, this project installed a new pickleball court behind Bolton's senior center. Volunteers also installed a bench onsite to give players and spectators a place to rest. Pickleball -- a fast-paced game combining elements of tennis and ping-pong -- is popular with older adults since is low-impact.

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