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With wheelbarrows, shovels, shovels and plants in hand, volunteers set out Friday morning to clean up a local homeless shelter and provide a safe and peaceful place for homeless people to flee downtown Stockton.
On Friday, the Gospel Center Rescue Mission held a "Green Fingers" event at the Women's and Men's Recovery Center to create a garden for the residents of the center.
"I had this vision some time ago," said David Midura, CEO of the Salvation Mission Gospel Center. "I see people recovering here and I wish they had a place. I thought, 'If people were me, why would I want to be there?'
The center is used by recently discharged homeless people who need time to recover as they try to overcome homelessness.
When members of the Stockton Garden Club first saw the request for Green Thumb Day volunteers, they knew it would come naturally to their organization.
The club's vice president, Carol Barnes, presented the idea and the club's board of directors approved it to donate money for the plant and give her time to oversee the project.
"Our horticulture club really cares about educational exchange," Barnes said. "We believe that gardening really does heal. There is real power in putting your hands in the ground and growing something."
Barnes' help overseeing the garden project was as important as the type of tree the team chose to plant.
"What we want to do with lavender and native plants is attract bees and birds and butterflies, and lavender repels mosquitoes," Barnes said. "Then we have a garden that we hope the residents will take care of and use in the kitchen at some point."
For Midura, the additional support he received from the club on Friday morning made the project an educational experience for the center's clients.
"I love the garden club. They come here and help. It's great," Midura said from behind the garden club volunteers teaching the center's clients how to plant trees. "The great thing is that you have people who have never planted, so we have people who are getting skills by being here and passing it on to others."
Garden club officials said they hope to visit the Evangelical Center's Rescue Mission more often, suggesting that the center close quarterly to maintain the garden.
"I think these residents are already feeling the impact," Barnes said. You are creating something. It's not just about using the healing power of plants as herbs, it's about getting out in the garden and growing something.
See more Stockton news from ABC10: Stocktonians start petition to bring Marvel's Fantastic Four to town.
