GA_071218

8 | July 12, 2018 | The glencoe anchor news
glencoeanchor.com
Community garden thrives thanks to morning team
Maddy Tung, Editorial Intern
Through an early-morning
mist, Bob Straus surveyed the
Glencoe Community Garden
crops.
He’s always known the area,
but now it means so much more.
“I used to run by here frequently,
and I never knew this
place existed,” the gardening
volunteer said.
When his wife mentioned the
garden to him, however, Straus
became a regular figure among
the plants.
Not everyone can rise at 7:30
a.m., but Straus belongs to the
Glencoe Community Garden
Early Risers Team, a group of
volunteers who wake up early
every Tuesday and Thursday
morning to tend the garden.
Although the GCG has been
active for seven seasons, this
season is the Early Risers inaugural
year.
“We’ve always had an Early
Risers team in the sense that
we’ve always harvested early on
Tuesday and Thursday mornings
from 7:30-9 a.m. We just thought
that maybe if people understood
that there’s actually a team that
comes that early, it might be
helpful,” said Vivian Nitzberg,
another founding member of the
Glencoe Community Garden.
According to its website, the
garden was founded by synagogue
Am Shalom in 2012 as a
community service project.
Besides providing social service
by donating fresh produce
and allowing volunteer groups
to help, the GCG aims to educate
on lifestyle and care of the environment.
“We are all inclusive; we try
to have a lot of different events
here,” Nitzberg said. “People
that just love to garden come and
are part of our Early Risers team.
During the school year, we have
a lot of service days. We had
about six different New Trier
freshman advisories come.
The garden uses its influence
to provide service to the North
Shore community.
Founding volunteer Sheila
Newman, a graphic designer,
created the group’s logo, which
is visible on the website and on
the T-shirts of several Early Risers.
Also, according to founding
volunteer Nina Schroeder, the
gardeners partner with various
food agencies like the New Trier
Township Food Pantry and The
Ark and is open to connecting
with new agencies.
The GCG benefits the community
in ways besides producing
produce.
Jim Goodman, the designer
of various complicated wooden
contraptions about the garden,
explained the garden’s Power
Tower.
“What we’re doing is building
a system that will demonstrate
not only alternate energy,
but the relationship of energy to
the scarcity of water and agriculture,”
he said.
The tower features a wind
generator at its apex, adjustable
solar panels and a human-powered
bike to exhibit various types
of alternative energy.
The power generated will go
toward operating vertical hydroponic
gardens.
“I have a group of three to four
Northwestern students helping
me write a short course demonstrating
the synergies between
water, agriculture and alternate
energy, and we’re going to put
this on a video that will be inside
the tower,” Goodman said. “Each
of the three students are going to
explain one part in the video.”
The video will be finished by
the end of the summer and ready
to use for educational purposes.
Sustainability and environmental
consciousness hold much
importance for Goodman and the
other volunteers.
“I’m very concerned that
many people, seems like most
people, are not concerned about
the environment, especially
young people. ... That’s the hope,
that young people will care more
than my generation,” Goodman
said.
The members of the Glencoe Community Garden’s new Early Risers team gather every Tuesday and
Thursday morning to tend the garden. Photos by Maddy Tung/22nd Century Media
The members of the Early
Risers team seem to reap camaraderie
in the process of sowing
good works in the Glencoe community.
As they worked the garden,
they called out to each other,
laughed at each other’s jokes and
poked fun at each other.
Perhaps that sense of companionship
in part stems from personal
benefits associated with
gardening.
An article written by Nitzberg
details the human perks
of joining the Early Risers,
including: lowered anxiety
levels, a greater sense of attunement
with nature, improved
physical health and fitness,
and a sense of accomplishment
from engaging in productive
activity.
“At the Glencoe Community
Garden, we have discovered
that gardening can improve your
mind, body and spirit,” the article
states. “While we are doing
our part to help repair the world
by spending our Tuesday and
Thursday mornings at the garden,
we also are helping to repair
ourselves.”
The Early Risers team meets
A look at the community garden, which benefits greatly from the
Early Risers.
from 7:30-9 a.m. Tuesday and
Thursdays at 385 Old Green Bay
Road, Glencoe. To learn more
and join, visit www.glencoecommunitygarden.com
or email gcgarden18@gmail.com.