The girl scout in me could not help but respond to Obama's call to Renew America Together on the MLK holiday. I signed up early to help renew a 60's built library in the Valley. We arrived at ten this morning with tools and plants in hand. The library was closed and we all milled around the sign in table out front. I successfully avoided the box of donuts. The grass out front was buried beneath dead leaves, fallen acorns and random litter. Despite evidence of a sprinkler system, the garden box that hugged the side of the library was as hard, dry and cracked.
More people arrived; people from the neighborhood, families with little kids, teenagers, an elderly couple with advanced gardening (they came with all sorts of tools, potting soil, garbage bags...all I had was a trowel). We stood in a ragged circle for the pledge of allegiance. That said, we were told where the sun hit the building and to arrange our plants were they would best thrive. I entrusted the perennials I had brought to an alert little boy to plant. The garden box was full of people trying to dig dead roots out of the baked dry earth. I looked up from my rake when I heard the garden box cheer; a neighbor had brought a water hose from across the street. The afternoon hummed along interrupted by occasional honks of encouragement and support from the passing motorists. I got a blister on my hand and raked up great piles of leaves.
The kids I was working with spent part of the time jumping into the piles and the other part gathering the leaves into trash bags. As we worked told me how Obama was going to be president tomorrow. When I left, the library had been transformed. It was now tidy, and cheerful. Bright flowers dotted the deep brown of the tilled garden box soil.
I hope we planted more than just flowers today; I hope we planted the seed of public service in the hearts and minds of all of those kids.
UPDATE 02.01.09
A special thanks to Councilmember Weiss, who has secured water for the Sherman Oaks Library garden!
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