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| Staff and students from Project Impact with artwork on display |
About 20 local
residents gathered April 22, at City Square Community Garden to celebrate Earth
Day along with Arbor Day and to mark the 7th anniversary of the
community garden.
Staff and students
from the City of Apalachicola Project Impact Afterschool and Summer Enrichment
Program where also on hand and displayed some of their artwork during the
celebration.
Both Apalachicola
Mayor Van Johnson and City Commissioner Frank Cook took part in the
celebration, below are the written remarks made by Mayor Johnson.
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| Staff and students from Project Impact pictured with Mayor Van Johnson |
“Once again I’m
honored and pleased to celebrate both Earth Day and Arbor Day with each of you,
as we also use the occasion to mark the establishment of City Square Community
Garden within the Historic City of Apalachicola.
As we celebrate the
Earth Day component of today’s event, let us be mindful that the Creator, in
His infinite wisdom linked the continued existence of mankind to nature. We are
all inescapably woven into the fabric of our environment. Whatever happens to it;
happens to us. Therefore, with each day
let us respect the environment, protect it, and treat it like our very lives
depend upon it, which it does.
As to Arbor Day, I’m
pleased to report that during 2014, the City of Apalachicola planted 125 new
trees throughout the community. During that same time only 37 trees had to be
removed that were either dead or diseased.
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| Mayor Van Johnson delivering remarks at Earth Day Celebration |
As for City Square
Community Garden, the idea for the project was born in 2008 during a discussion
of community minded folks that were interested in beautifying the city and
providing much-needed fresh vegetables to the local food pantry.
The group identified
this location, received approval from the city commission and stated the
planning process that resulted in what you see here today.
In 2010 they hosted a
“Blessing of the Garden”, where more than 100 people showed up and joined the
local clergy in praying, prayers of blessing for the success of this project.
Since that inaugural
event, the concept of City Square Community Garden has spread throughout the
Florida Panhandle like an epidemic, with other cities and towns emulating this
project within their own communities and within their own backyards.
During the last
7-years, City Square Community Garden has become one of the most self-sustainable,
recognizable, grassroots projects that occurred during my administration.
A success that can be
directly attributed to the people involved like you and to the foundation upon
which the garden was established.
A sturdy foundation
that has brought the residents of this community together across racial lines
and social barriers to do something that everyone can enjoy doing together in a
peaceful setting blessed by man and ordained by the Creator from the beginning
of the world.
The Book of Genesis
describes a time where God took daily walks during the breeze of the day
surrounded by nature in a Garden to converse with man.
That illustration
confirms for me that we are indeed one with nature, one family, one community,
and one nation sewn together in the fabric of humanity by the hands of God.
With that I wish each
of you a very Happy Earth Day and May God continue to bless this project, the
people of Apalachicola and my administration”.
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