By Patrick and Trudy Barrett

(Editor’s Note: Pat Barrett is first vice-president of our Metro Chapter and a member of the NFB of Minnesota board of directors. This article appeared in the Windom Community News, Spring 2011, and is a good example of how NFB of Minnesota members are involved in their local community.)

We moved 1300 miles east to Minnesota from Idaho (not Iowa or Ohio as some confuse those state names) in the summer of 1993. Windom Gables has been our home since then. Our townhome is close to public transportation, shopping, and doctors’ offices. Our apartment managers and maintenance folks have been outstanding. Both of us are blind, and have raised our 24-year-old sighted daughter for most of those years here.

Eighteen years have seen many changes on the northwest corner of 62nd and Nicollet Avenue South. This is the planned site for the Windom Community garden (not officially named yet). Raeann, our daughter, and her friends from Windom Gables used to go to Virge’s Gas Station to get pop. A 36-unit apartment complex was there. Mounds of sand and rock occupied that spot during the agony and ecstasy of the Crosstown project.

Today, the spot sits serene, absent of machines and rubble. Brian O’Shea, also a Windom Gables resident and newest member of the Windom Community board, is heading up the community garden project. We, along with many other enthusiastic people, serve on the project task force.

Our first meeting was on May 12. At the meeting, we came up with the following four goals for the garden:

• Improve appearance of intersection/community
• Build community relationships by creating a gathering space
• Grow healthful food for our families
• Make the garden an educational tool for neighborhood kids, and potentially neighborhood schools

We also identified five other benefits of the garden, in addition to the four things above:

• Public health benefits from food and activity

• Access to gardening for renters who may not have space
• Potential park/play lot/green space next to garden
• Property value increases
• Public safety improvements through community building

Brian has had soil samples from the lot tested by the University of Minnesota to determine if there are any contaminating chemicals in the ground. As of this writing, we are waiting for those results. A hydrant is on site for watering. The Department of Transportation owns the site, and Brian has also been working with them to transfer ownership of the space to the city.

We probably will not be able to plant, weed, or water until the spring of 2012, because we are waiting for all the paperwork and red tape to be completed.