Children tending the plants in the Micah House Chapel garden need only glance up to take in majestic mountains, the Zanja irrigation ditch or the Burrage Mansion.
All of those landmarks are featured in a mural that the children helped design and paint at the after-school program next to Sylvan Park in north Redlands.
The mural and the garden were dedicated in a short ceremony on Thursday afternoon, Nov. 8. Diana Lawson, program coordinator for the after-school ministry supported by the nonprofit Trinity Community Foundation, said it all started last March, when she took the children for some walks through the park’s rose garden.
The first time, the roses were blooming and fragrant and the children were delighted. But the next time they visited, the bushes had all been pruned. The children wanted to know why.
Lawson thought there might be lessons to be taught – about gardening, life cycles and such – if she could plant a few roses in an unused plot in front of the Micah House buildings on Chapel Street.
Then Emily Bueermann, of the Redlands Horticultural Society, suggested that Micah House apply for a $200 grant from the society, which Lawson figured she could use for the roses.
As she talked about her idea to her staff, volunteers and parents, it began to grow.
“Suddenly I had a garden committee of more than 10 people,” Lawson said.
Volunteers Sandi and David Adrian created a landscape design, including planters, a retaining wall and benches. Mike Morse, a volunteer who has been running a bicycle club for Micah House for 10 years, built the benches – one that encircles a palm tree and another along a building on the plot’s west side.
Bueermann suggested plants for the landscaping and University of Redlands students, during their May Term community service projects, helped plant them.
Some city employees who work in Sylvan Park, Ken Bolger and John Ostler – known as Park John to the kids – helped out with irrigation lines.
Volunteer Susan Auciello, who tutors the Micah students and reads to them, helped create the mural. She and members of the Redlands Art Association taught the students about brush strokes and techniques. They created a smaller, practice mural inside Micah House before blocking out the design on the outside wall and setting to work on that.
“To do art with Micah House was a dream come true,” Auciello said. “Two of my favorite things.”
In a bit of synchronicity, one of the Redlands Bowl presentations last summer was a ballet performance of “The Secret Garden.” Lawson made sure the students attended.
Now that the work is completed, the students use the garden often. They have special programs there, read books there and tend the plants twice a week, Lawson said.
“The kids trim and weed. It’s not something that’s done and forgotten; it will be an ongoing process,” she said. “We can teach a lot of lessons in the garden.”
When Lawson looks at the finished project, she is amazed at what grew out of the idea of plant a couple of rose bushes.
“It’s what I hoped for, but more than I dreamed of,” she said. “You can’t do anything but give glory to God.”
Follow Jan Sears on Twitter: @jancsears or online at blog.pe.com/Redlands
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