Syracuse, NY - Keierra Jackson hoped to give new life to the Kwanzaa Village Garden when she helped recruit seven families this summer to grow everything from eggplant to watermelon in the small plot off Midland Avenue. But those dreams suffered a setback overnight Saturday when vandals kicked down a section of white picket fence volunteers had worked 15...
In this provided photo, volunteers stand at the Kwanzaa Village Garden in Syracuse which was vandalized Saturday night. Syracuse, NY - Keierra Jackson hoped to give new life to the Kwanzaa Village Garden when she helped recruit seven families this summer to grow everything from eggplant to watermelon in the small plot off Midland Avenue.
But those dreams suffered a setback overnight Saturday when vandals kicked down a section of white picket fence volunteers had worked 15 hours over two days to install. Though only $60 in damage was done, the psychological blow was much greater.
“It’s just so disheartening,” Jackson said. “I don’t know if the families are going to want to come back now.”
Jackson, a former AmeriCorps volunteer, said she held a “Green the Block” event in April to start renovating the garden, opened in 1996.
Vandals this weekend kicked down a section of the white picket fence at the Kwanzaa Village Garden in Syracuse.The garden was founded by longtime community organizer Geneva Hayden, who transformed a trashed vacant lot into a source of community pride. But as the years went by, fewer people were around to care for it, Jackson said.
That’s when the group Jackson co-founded stepped in, she said. Becoming Environmentally Aware Nationwide, or B.E.A.N., started rehabbing the 42-foot by 38-foot garden, with the help of a Gifford Foundation grant.
The second phase started last weekend, when volunteers began installing a $2,000 vinyl fence to keep out intruders who used the garden as a shortcut to a store on West Kennedy Street, she said.
The strangers often left trash and signs of drug use, such as powder residue or empty baggies, she said.
But Sunday morning, Hayden called on her way home from church with the bad news about the fence.
Jackson said the fence was a necessity.
“We don’t want to be growing our crops right next to (people’s) drugs,” she said. “Plus, there are children out here. It’s horrible.”
Anyone who would like to help upkeep for the garden can contact B.E.A.N. at 436-8116.[