The Green Leaves of Summer Shelter Plants and Home Grown Produce at the Underwood Shelter

Volunteer, Brenda Thomas, tells how it came about:

I was born and raised in Logan, WV.  I met my husband in college and we were married in March, 1970. He was drafted into the Army in 1971. We spent 20 years moving all over the U.S. from Maryland to California.  We lived in Germany twice for three years each time. I love to travel and have visited 19 countries.   I moved to Huntington May, 2006 and truly enjoy living here.  We are to "Bloom Where We Are Planted" and I have done just that. But my passion is raising flowers and good vegetables to eat. January thru April, 2010 I took the Cabell Co. and WV University Master Gardner's Class.  Upon completion, I had to volunteer 30 hours to a non-profit organization teaching others about gardening or planting a garden area. One day I was walking through our neighborhood with a friend, Cindy Jeffords, and told her about needing a place to complete my project. She
said, “I have just the place for you!”  Her church had just collected clothing for the Hovah Underwood Child Shelter in Ona and thought that this would be the ideal place for me! I called Joan Sansom, the shelter supervisor, and made an appointment to talk to her about the project. We decided upon a 10 X 20 ft. vegetable garden for the kids and landscaping the sign area and around the light poles.   My husband and I tilled the garden area and the kids and counselors planted tomato, pepper, zucchini, cantaloupe and watermelon plants.  Each child planted 2 plants and promised to water and take care of those plants. I talked to them about how a garden is a lot like life.  We need to prepare our field (life) remove the weeds from our field (life) and water our plants and follow through until the end.  If we ignore the garden and do not tend to it, it will die.
I spoke about how life hands us raw deals sometimes and we have a choice what to do with our situation.  We can cave in or rise above it and make our lives better.  I talked about education and what a difference it can make in their futures. Also, I could have come there and done all the work for them, but they would not have learned anything from it.   An old Indian saying tells it best. "You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day, or you can teach a man to fish and feed him for his life time".   I really enjoyed working with the kids on the garden and hope that they will reap what they have sown.   Thank You for letting me complete my project at the Child Shelter.   Brenda Thomas

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