Please vote – community garden education center needed in the Lower Ninth Ward, NOLA

Hi there,

Greetings from New Orleans, where it’s not quite hot yet, the French Quarter Fest is raging, and all around the Lower Ninth Ward, the idea of sustainability and locally-grown vegetables is sprouting up like a mess o’ collard green seedlings.

Please take a minute to read the repost below and vote for a friend of Burners Without Borders NOLA — Jenga Mwendo — to win the $5k necessary to restore the blighted cottage next to our neighborhood community garden and transform it into an education center (and storage). It’ll be your good deed for the day!

Thanks,
BWB NOLA

Jenga and Mama Patsy cleaning up the garden in the early days. That’s the cottage in the background. Git ‘r dun!

From Jenga:

Greetings! On behalf of the Backyard Gardener’s Network, the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association Garden Committee and the entire Lower Ninth Ward community, I ask for your help to win the Cox Conserves Heroes contest. Please go here and vote for me, Jenga Mwendo! Cox Conserves Heroes is a contest that awards an “environmental hero” $5000 to his/her charity of choice. If I win, the money will go towards renovating a blighted cottage next door to our community garden for use as a storage/education garden center. I am the only contestant representing a project in the Lower Ninth Ward, the community devastated most by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Vote Now! Spread the word! Vote as many times as you want!! Thanks!

About Cox Conserves Heroes:

To help honor New Orleans’ unsung environmental heroes and inspire neighborhood conservation, Cox Communications has launched “Cox Conserves Heroes.”

Finalists have been selected by a panel of local judges and public online voting is open until April 23. Please visit the Voting Form tab on the left to learn more about the finalists and vote for a winner.

The winner will be crowned the New Orleans 2010 Cox Conserves Hero and a $5,000 cash donation will be given to the environmental non-profit of his or her choice.

About the Backyard Gardener’s Network:

The Backyard Gardener’s Network is a Lower Ninth Ward based not-for-profit organization founded by Jenga Mwendo, whose mission is community building, neighborhood revitalization and cultural preservation through urban agriculture in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward. Since 2007, Jenga Mwendo has organized neighbors to revitalize a pre-Katrina community garden (the Ernst Garden), planted over 150 free trees for residents, secured fruit trees for three community sites and led the charge to convert an empty lot into a vibrant greenspace (the Guerrilla Garden), among other beneficial projects. The Backyard Gardener’s Network works in partnership with New Orleans Food and Farm Network and Parkway Partners.

About the author: Summer Burkes

Summer Burkes

Summer Burkes has been rousting about at Burning Man since 1998. She first met her dusty DPW / Cyclecide / Bike Club fam-dambly on the back of The Bucket. A Cacophony Society enthusiast, Summer loves explosions and cake.