Kids’ community garden up for award

[attach]6292[/attach]Busy Bee founder Helena Beslic wants to give back to her community through gardening.

Currently, the organization’s fresh produce gets donated to local food banks in an effort to supplement the large amounts of canned goods that are donated.

But Busy Bee hopes to expand further as it is a finalist in Nature’s Path’s Gardens for Good contest, which awards community gardeners a $15,000 grant to encourage people to live actively and organically.

Winners are to be announced mid-July.

In addition to expanding their garden beds, located behind the Yugoslavian Seventh Day Adventist Church, the grant will help to get people more involved in gardening, Beslic says.

“It incorporates a relationship between an older generation and a younger generation,” she says. “Children are neglecting gardening today, but it’s important to do for green therapy…. It’s very therapeutic to work in the garden.”

Beslic started Busy Bee last summer out of her home with children from the church growing pots of vegetables on her windowsill. It’s this involvement that makes the children excited and gives them a sense of ownership when they come to the garden.

“There is nothing quite like eating fruits and vegetables that you’ve picked and grown yourself,” Beslic says.