With dirt on their hands and paint on their clothes, community
members are breathing new life into a vacant lot and the run-down
former Salvation Army building at 7341 Monterey St.
With dirt on their hands and paint on their clothes, community members are breathing new life into a vacant lot and the run-down former Salvation Army building at 7341 Monterey St.
Gilroy Arts Alliance volunteers painted trim, laid linoleum and did other miscellaneous cleanup this past weekend in the former Salvation Army building, which is slated to become an interim community arts center. Meanwhile, members of the Leadership Gilroy program have begun disking a field at Seventh and Eigleberry streets next door that eventually will house a community garden.
If all goes as planned, the interim arts center should be ready to be rented out for classes in early May, while both the garden and arts center will officially open June 5.
“I can’t quit smiling. I’m just grinning from ear to ear every day,” Gilroy Arts Alliance president Sylvia Myrvold said this week of the impending opening. “The anticipation is just killing me.”
The arts center will include workshops, small exhibits, staged readings and book signings. The art league also hopes to turn land behind the building into an outdoor theater.
The city approved the purchase of the building and the surrounding land to make way for a cultural arts center in late 2004. However, money for a permanent multi-million dollar project is not available at this time, according to city officials. The Salvation Army building will be used in the meantime, and it is unclear when a permanent building will take its place.
The nearby demonstration garden, designed by local landscape artist Judy Hess, will remain even when the interim arts center is no longer in use.
The garden, which will include 250 plants, will include outdoor classroom areas, planter boxes, a vermiculture area in which worms are used for composting, and possibly an outdoor pizza oven, where pizzas can be made using produce and herbs from the garden.
Hess plans to maintain the garden with the help of volunteers. Classes will be available for children and adults on topics such as health, landscaping, gardening and food preparation, she said. Hess got ideas from other demonstration gardens in the region, including ones in Santa Cruz, Berkeley and Sunnyvale, she said.
Produce from the garden will be donated to St. Joseph’s Family Center, which offers various services for needy residents, said Mark Turner, associate pastor at South Valley Community Church and a participant in the Leadership Gilroy program. It also will be sold at a future farmers market planned for Gourmet Alley.
Leadership Gilroy’s 17-member class of 2010 decided to take on the project during a weekend retreat earlier this year, Turner said.
So far, the group has been fundraising and promoting awareness of the garden, Turner said. Leadership Gilroy has raised $10,000 in cash and in-kind donations for the $20,000 project, he said. Some companies have even contributed more than $1,000 to the project, he said.
“The Gilroy Arts Alliance is really the vehicle, and Leadership Gilroy is now the gasoline,” Turner said.
The class is raising money for the garden by selling $100 engraved bricks, which will be installed in the garden’s walkway area. Order forms are available at the Gilroy Dispatch, 6400 Monterey Road, and First Street Coffee, 1211 First St., which also has a sample brick on display.
Leadership Gilroy recruits up to 20 people each year to learn leadership and problem solving skills and to work on a community project. Past members have been tapped for nonprofit boards and city committees, Turner said. Sometimes they even have become inspired to run for City Council, he said.
“It’s a real springboard for leadership in the community,” Turner said.
Myrvold gave kudos to the program for its involvement in the project.
“They really just have stepped up to the plate,” she said.
Get artistic
For information on the interim arts center, contact Sylvia Myrvold at ou******@****ic.com.
For information on financial and in-kind donations for the garden, contact Debbi Sanchez at de***@***********ry.com or 857-4795.
For information on volunteering, contact Walter Dunckel at walter.dunckel@gilroygardens.
For general information about the demonstration garden, log on to gilroycommunitygarden.blogspot.com.
Community support
Companies that have donated $1,000 or more:
-Peninsula Building Materials
-ConAgra foods
-Gilroy Gardens
-Saint Louise Regional Hospital
-Cresco Equipment Rentals
-South County Rockery & Building Materials
-The Gilroy Dispatch
