This blog post was contributed by Cohort 14 alum Keshanee Gumby.
My name is Keshanee Gumby, I’m from Castle Hill Houses and a graduate of Green City Force Cohort 14. On Saturday, April 27th the “Castle Hill Cleanup Day” went underway. I received an email inviting residents to participate, and with no hesitation I accepted. I love giving, especially when a neighborhood lacks so much effort not being put into it.
That day, we had volunteers from ages 10 to 23 years old, along with roughly nine cohort 19 members. We planted a honey locust tree and created a pathway. The volunteers helped out with the project, which opened my eyes as a member of the community, and showed people what’s going on in their community. It felt like old times, back when I was a Corps Member with Farmer John and Team Leaders Carson and Andrew. There was this one volunteer who asked Carson, “are we going to compost the weeds?” I instantly smiled like, wow I love that. A lot of people don’t know about compost and I teach them every chance I get. Farmer John said we might go back and finish the pathway with stone gravel, so I’ll be out there again when we finish it. And every time I visit Castle Hill Houses I will water the honey locust tree./
