Volunteers got down in the dirt preparing garden beds for planting.
Each of them slipped on gloves and grabbed shovels. These tools were vastly different from the ones they usually used working at Nordstrom.
Fourteen employees from the upscale retailer spent the United Way Day of Caring expanding the community garden at the Angle Lake Family Resource Center (FRC) in SeaTac. The community garden needed more space, so the group built two new raised beds.
“It looks so good,” said project leader and Nordstrom employee Kelly Knecht. “I’m going to have to stop by to look at it every time I go to the airport.”
Two garden beds were drilled together and then carefully placed down in their new locations.
As the morning and work progressed, volunteers made friends with children in the nearby daycare. Kids pressed up against the fence asking what was going on. Seniors from the adjacent housing complex came out to view the work. FRC Program Manager Zac Eskenazi assured them that existing plants and gardens wouldn’t be harmed.
The finishing touch was stapling netting around the bedframes. The hope is to keep critters out and vegetables intact. When finished, all 14 stepped back to enjoy the products of their labor.
This year’s Day of Caring was Friday, Sept 18. The biggest volunteer event in Washington State, 12,000 volunteers participated in 500 community projects that impact Seattle-area nonprofits.
Day of Caring volunteers put in to new beds to expand the community garden.
