WATSONVILLE—Community members joined city officials, business folks and a team from the Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust to reopen the Carey-Davis Community Garden on June 19.
With a table loaded up with fresh pastries and coffee to fuel the gathering, Watsonville Mayor Jimmy Dutra joined Community Health Trust Executive Director DeAndre James and program manager Teresa Martinez-Rodriguez in emphasizing the benefit of the garden. Plenty of thanks were handed out for those that helped build the wealth of raised wooden garden boxes, tucked in a fenced-in pen on the same lot as the Watsonville Police Activities League (PAL) location.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this project that came about thanks to so many wonderful people,” Martinez-Rodriguez said. “People like Dick Peixoto and Ace Hardware, Monterey Bay Murals and so many others—from providing the soil, the tool shed, so many materials and labor. And our community members who came out—thank you, too. Like Gary Albo said, ‘Let’s make this happen.’”
The garden was created for families living in the Carey-Davis neighborhood to build a stronger sense of community. The Health Trust and PAL will handle the garden’s day-to-day management.
“Bringing this garden back to life has brought me so much joy and happiness,” Martinez-Rodriguez said. “I want to give back to my community and hope to give them something to be proud of.”
Added James: “We have invested time, physical and monetary resources to clean up the garden, and worked with the gardeners to understand their needs. So much of health and wellness takes place in our daily life through our physical, mental, and emotional health.”
The garden includes 20 12-by-4 foot planter boxes, with four boxes set aside for PAL’s Youth Gardening Program. The remaining boxes are for local residents to reserve for the season to grow vegetables and fruits.
During the ceremony, Dutra presented a framed proclamation recognizing Albo, a longtime community organizer who helped start the project. Then, in a surprise move, councilmember Francisco “Paco” Estrada handed over another framed proclamation to Martinez-Rodriguez for her leadership.
