Local Heroes are everywhere

We don't always see local heroes; but we feel their presence and impact. And, many local heroes are not aware of their status. Ask any one of them about the work that they do for their communities and a common theme emerges:

'I just do what I do because of my passion for enhancing the quality of life for others.'

Isn't that something that we all aspire to do? That is, enhance the quality of life? Whether it's to enhance our lives or the lives of others; nonetheless, touching one person with compassion touches us all.

Local heroes seem to have  endless energy. Where do they get all the energy for helping others? Most will say:

'I'm driven just knowing that someone needs my help.'

If we could harness our local heroes' energy; there would be no worry about a worldwide energy crisis. Imagine walking up to a Local Heroes Filling Station, saying "fill 'er up," and leaving with a full tank of high octane of I'm Helping Someone Today?

And, where in the world do local heroes get the time to help others? It's a mystery. I know of local heroes who work a full time job, or support many social causes, or work to ensure their families are healthy and help countless people enhancing the quality of their lives - themselves and others.

'It seems that the more I do; the more time I have.'

Did you know that you are a local hero? Yes, it's true. You have done something good for yourself and others in your lifetime many times. No matter how large or small; your impact of inspiration has been felt by someone and that gives you hero status.

Aurora

As we move into the May challenge month of this year's Victory Garden Transition Challenge; I thought I'd share with you a few facts about the challenge and some information from some of our local challenge heroes:

In the month of April:  

• 85  local heroes registered for the Victory Garden Transition Challenge representing:
  38,222 square feet of Backyard gardens
  6,281 square feet of Frontyard gardens
  4,100 square feet of Sideyard gardens
  50,060 square feet of Community Gardening space
  13,136 square feet of School Gardening space
  223 square feet of Indoor Gardening Space

• These gardens are feeding 1096 adults, 484 teens, and  630 young children
• More than 1000 heirloom vegetable, herb, and flowers seeds have been distributed to individuals, community organizations, and community gardens in 16 states and 38 cities.

 

Eden Keeps Garden

And, this is just the first part of the Challenge!

From May 1 - 31; we want to double, triple, quadruple the outreach, inspiration, support, and education while thousands across the nation take the challenge. Transition US, Victory Garden Foundation, Marin Garden Challenge, our community partners and many, many more organizations and individuals have embarked on this challenge to raise awareness to growing food, saving water, conserve energy while building resilient and sustainable communities.

There are so many ways that you may get involved at home and in your communities. Here are some of the reasons why our local heroes say they are taking the challenge:

 My garden challenge project is:

"Building gardens at private residences, schools, community centers, churches, senior centers, and San Quentin State Prison."

"We love to garden sharing our products with our elderly parents in Florida, the UPS man, Fed Ex, our neighbors and every single week - the food bank.  We make sure they get at least a dozen cartons of eggs a week.  Last year we shared cantaloupes by the cart load, same with okra."

"I run the CCG garden and urban farms project ... All the food we grow is donated to the poor thru a home delivery system we have been running for four years now ... We grow year round and have begun an intensive diversification program . Last year , inspired by our home delivery of food, neighbors began to let out their unimproved properties to farm urban agriculture."

"fruits, veggies  and gourds for birdhouses"

"Adding one more bed and revitalizing old beds, crop swaps in Berkeley with seedlings."

"Strawberry Fields Forever"

"Plant veggies & herbs, maybe coordinate with Berkeley's Neighborhood Vegetables"

" I want to expand my garden to grow more vegetables"

  My water challenge project is:

 "thinking about watering drip system."

"hope to construct a fountain, want some frogs!"

 "Clean up Arcadia EcoHome's garden & street in front of the property so as to reduce impact of urban runoff on water quality in the ocean."

"Rainwater harvesting"

"greywater from washing machine goes out into the from yard with 2 fruit trees"

"we have a 250 gallon hot tub converted to rain barrel to water garden and worm bin"

My energy challenge project is:

"Solar backup lighting"

"a solar powered greenhouse"

"For my family, our car runs on Waste Vegetable Oil"

"We're researching alternative energy methods like solar panels to power our home with clean energy and to save money. We hope to be using sustainable energy by 2013."

"solar panel for the last 4 years"

 My community challenge project is:

"The whole yard is shared - we are a co-housing community with 8 families."

"Encourage community members who live in single family homes to grow their own food."

"At one point, I'd love to have a gardening club, kids included, since I know some children around here have two parents that work, or a single parent that works.  I would love to see this as a means to bring our community together, esp as there is some gang violence/activity in our neighborhood."

"We support the Urban Agriculture Text Amendments which are being proposed in our city. This will allow us to sell the food that we grow to our community (It's currently illegal). The amendment is important because we live in a food desert and we want to bring healthy local food to our community."

"Guerrilla gardening in empty lot adjoining property"

"People's Victory Garden volunteer"

"contributing money to a community garden in Berkeley"

"working with Richmond Grows Seeds"

"RPGG "Adopt the Public Way" garden grant program (in progress)"

"I am volunteering more often at the local community garden"

"I'm developing a program to plant gardens on synagogue property in the East Bay"

And, there are so many more projects. We'll share more with you in a blog update about the Challenge. But, you get the picture? These projects all come from Local Heroes - You're wonderful! We encourage you and appreciate you for spreading the love.

Will you help spread the word about growing food, saving water, conserving energy and building resilience and sustainability in your community? Just forward this blog to let others know that you are a local hero and they are too! And, while the transition to be more sustainable and resilient may seem like a big task; planting a simple garden is a big step!