Anne McHale is a service member in Glendive.
Summer in Eastern Montana is full of long, lazy days spent trying to
beat the heat and, if you were in Glendive this week, dodging the hail storm
that took out many of our gardens. I’m still trying to figure out why my garden
at the Prairie Development Center was leveled while gardens just a couple miles
west got nothing more than a good soak. Montana’s microclimates never cease to
baffle me!
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| A sad looking tomato plant. |
Luckily, my garden had just fulfilled its primary role for the summer
by providing greens to about 40 kids who came by for their summer reading
program through the library. The theme this year is “DIG INTO READING.” As you
can imagine, I didn’t have to twist any arms to schedule myself into this particular
program.
In Glendive, many of the kids spend their summers taking care of
younger siblings, or being taken care of by older siblings. Many are out on
their bikes around town, waiting for the pool to open or baseball practice to
get underway. Sometimes these biker crews make it all the way out to Makoshika,
the badlands state park that boarders Glendive.
As far as I can tell, Makoshika State Park, the library, the city
recreation department and the Boys & Girls Club account for nearly all
school-age activities during the summer. As a FoodCorps member, I go where the
kids go and, thus, have partnered with all these groups over the years.
Fortunately, they are always game for new programming and, of course, delicious
snacks!
The Boys & Girls Club, in particular, is my home base this summer largely
because it’s where we built a garden last year. This year we’ve planted some
exotic plants and even some mystery seeds. I had a memorable line from a kiddo
this spring who was helping me pot starts. He couldn’t remember what kind of
seed was in his pot. When I urged him to describe any characteristic that would
help identify it he said, “It was a LITTLE seed!”
Luckily gardening with kids isn’t rocket science and if things go well,
they’ll have lots of fun and learn a lot. Likewise, if things go badly they’ll still
have fun and learn!
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| Garden Wildlife! |
Tragically, the Boys and Girls Club did not escape the hail. That
said, we’ve got it pretty well cleaned up and I’m mentally preparing to
replant. It’s important that the kids not see any sign of defeat in the recent destruction
of our garden plants during the last few weeks of my service term. I hope my
behavior and attitude will model resilience and perseverance. In the garden as
in life, when you get hailed on there’s nothing to do but refocus and replant.
Plants are resilient just like Anne. They are coming back. Unfortunately, Anne isn't coming back to Glendive but will sprout her wings and try new adventures. It's been a pleasure and Anne has touched many lives.
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