Second Unitarian Church of Omaha Care for the Environment Group 2009 Community Pumpkin Patch Project Closure By Julie Carda
A huge thank you to all church members for seeing the community pumpkin patch project through to harvest.  Materials for the patch were a collaborative effort of farmer donations, merchant donations, and purchases paid for with money from the sales of Free Trade coffee and teas.  The project yielded sixty-seven pumpkins grown to maturation.  We collected one 55 gallon blue barrel filled with canned food items, and made a $592 monetary contribution from pumpkin sales to the Omaha food bank.
Views of the Fall Harvest Festival on the east side of the church.
No person in the Second UU community regardless of age, physical ability or financial means was excluded from this project.  Second Unitarian church support ranged from contributions of manual labor to blessings and prayers of nurturing.  As our new DRE pointed out, there were many smiles and much laughter over the two day harvest celebration.  Photos of the event are available on the web site under Events & What's New.  We should be proud of our success and embrace yet another aspect of the interconnected web we weave through our dreams and actions.
Sixty-seven pumpkins were harvested from the Pumpkin Patch on September 27th.
On October 3rd and 4th, members of Second Unitarian church celebrated the completion of an educational agricultural project.  The intended scope of this project was to bring membership in alignment with agricultural reality versus ideal.  When faced with the very issues the small organic farmer faces each day, we became enlightened and compassionate toward the future of food.  We acknowledged the fragile connection we maintain with nature and the intimate pledges we maintain as to how we care for the environment.
After the harvest volunteers collected the vines and put them in the new compost bin. The beds were then prepared for the winter and planting more pumpkin plants in 2010.
Celebrating acknowledges our gratitude for all that was given in the divine exchange between humans and nature.  Due to the breadth and scope of the project many members are unaware of the magnitude of communal involvement.  So in this time of project culmination let us look upon each other as a metaphor of nature and how we collectively contributed to the whole.  Through the RE curriculum started in January of 2009 the children planted seeds and nurtured them into young sprouts. Through Second Circle, the teens were introduced to long term planning and commitments by aiding in the labor to prepare the ground for planting in March 2009 and later to supply the labor to distribute flyers and run the booths at the festival in September and October. Through pre and post Sunday service commitments beginning January 2009, church members provided the vision,  sprouted seeds, transplanted seedlings, watered the patch, consulted and problem solved things like soil balance, predator control, early ripening while reaching out to the church neighborhood and connecting our church to the local community via contact with the Omaha Food bank and surrounding farmers.  As excitement over the impending harvest increased, members created a festival plan, designed advertising, built family friendly interactive games, implemented sales of pumpkins, collected and contributed canned donations, sat at booths to run games, prepared food for volunteer workers and interfaced with the public.
A group of the volunteers who helped at the Fall Harvest Festival, and Julie displaying the inside of a pumpkin to the Sunday School Class.
Click here to view photos of the Pumpkin Patch during Spring and Summer. Click here to learn more about our Care for the Environment Group. Click here for Pumpkin Patch maintenance instructions.
Updated October 12, 2009