Shining moments: Garden boxes
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In the place known as the "City of Faith and Beauty," dozens of bright yellow Mormon Helping Hands shirts sprouted like early spring daffodils among the group of eager Kirtland, Ohio, volunteers gathering in the early morning hours on April 30, to give service to the community.
The space, near the historic Kirtland Temple, was donated by the Community of Christ with the goal of providing a place in the community where needy families can "grow healthy food to feed a healthy community, while sustaining a healthy environment."
The group constructed 50 raised garden boxes for use by the city's needy and for raising produce to fill the shelves of Kirtland's Old South Church food bank.
While the eight young elders of the Kirtland Zone of the Ohio Cleveland Mission labored to decipher instructions and erect a garden shed, others — including 16 young sister missionaries — helped prepare the area.
Volunteer efforts included building an enclosing fence, clearing and leveling the site and filling the garden boxes with soil in preparation for planting.
Ohio Cleveland Mission President Darwin D. Sorenson and his wife, Sister Lee Ann B. Sorenson, Historic Kirtland Visitors Center director Elder W. Brent Edman and his wife, Sister Ellen Edman, joined with several missionary couples serving in the Historic Kirtland Visitors Center to contribute to the gardens.
The missionaries abandoned their neckties in favor of bright, yellow shirts and joined with the project manager, The Reverend Blake J. Smith of the Community of Christ, to assist members of other local churches and service organizations in the initial phase of creating a community garden.
Since the Church's beginnings in Kirtland, providing support for the needy has ever been the goal. Today, through the combined efforts of many helping hands, this historic city will continue to be, as proudly proclaimed on road signs greeting all who visit the City, a "City of Faith and Beauty."
— Elder Mark E. Orton, Historic Kirtland Visitors Center missionary
