Maddie’s Story

Maddie Wyatt, a graduate of Berkley High School, volunteered with us as a Giving Gardens Intern when she was a high school student.  We invited her to share a story of an experience she had during her time here:

I’ve spent a fair amount of time at Giving Gardens, and every time I’m there, I walk away with a great new memory. I’ve had so many great experiences, and I find it difficult to choose a favorite.

The first that comes to mind is the day I was transplanting seedlings into individual containers. It may sound like a menial task, but it is one my fondest memories. It was a cooler morning, so we decided to bring the seed trays inside to work on the tables there. I was working with a friend of mine named Esther. She is by far one of my favorite volunteers. She’s there nearly every weekend and will do just about anything to help out. We were planting seedlings into individual containers, and we had set it up like an assembly line. Esther would put the seedling into the container, and I would fill it in with excess soil. Esther claimed that, because my eyes were younger, I would be able to spot if one of the containers hadn’t been filled. I can safely say, however, that she was the one who ended up checking me. I can’t even begin to count how many empty individual tray holes she found.

The other issue we discovered was that because the holes in the tray were so small it was hard to put soil into it. Safe to say, we made a huge mess and the floor was covered in dirt by the time we were finished. I remember us having so much fun and laughing a lot and that’s what stands out to me the most from that day.

This is one of my fondest memories.  Not only did I help the community, but I also got to work with other people who I consider to be my friends. The people we work with are from all sorts of social backgrounds and different age groups. We have both young and old hands working together to help the community get fresh food.  It is a great experience.