Greenway Rejuvenated

by | Mar 14, 2015 | Article, Environment, Greenway, greenwayarticle

Walnut Creek Greenway Park

This WorldLegacy Leadership project involved a significant enhancement of a section of the Greenway System that predominantly served a low-income section of the city. The project included: designing and fabricating bird and duck houses, adding native plants, a butterfly garden, benches, and creating identification markers and trail maps.  March 2001. NC36. A second project renovated a quarter mile section of the Greenway and planted over 122 trees and plants. February 2004. NC63.

Greenway Rejuvenated

LORENZO PEREZ; STAFF WRITER
March 14, 2001

RALEIGH — Before they built the birdhouses and planted the butterfly bushes and dogwoods, the volunteers had to clear the bald tires, stained mattresses and beer bottles out of the swamp.

People still use the Walnut Creek wetland area as a dumping ground, but at least one small stretch across from Carnage Middle School may now lure more than late-night litterers.

About 50 people came Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the restoration of the the Walnut Creek Greenway Trail and walk the immaculate path.

Working with city officials, students and a local group of environmental activists, participants in a WorldLegacy leadership program cleaned up and restored a quarter-mile stretch of city greenway that cuts through the Walnut Creek wetland area.

The WorldLegacy, a Chapel Hill company offering adult-education and leadership programs, requires participants to complete service projects benefiting the community.

“When we came out the first day, it was overwhelming,” said Courtney Carlson, a 28-year-old occupational therapist and member of the WorldLegacy project team. “There was a lot of work to do, but we pulled together.”

Beginning in early January, volunteers began clearing out the junk clogging the nearby stream. Each weekend, work crews grew larger. Children from the surrounding neighborhood pitched in, digging holes, planting trees and clearing trash.

One weekend, more than 70 people came out to help, the WorldLegacy said.

The project was made possible by donations totaling $10,000 from area businesses as well as in-kind support from the government.

WorldLegacy volunteers also collaborated with Partners for Environmental Justice, a citizens group that began cleaning up the wetland area more than five years ago.

Eventually, Partners for Environmental Justice wants to convert close to 150 acres of the wooded, swampy area into an educational park and bog garden. The ambitious project comes at an estimated price of $10 million, and the group hopes the city would help pay.

The city owns a large piece of the wetland south of Walnut Creek between State Street and Garner Road. Other patches belong to the state, the federal government and private owners.

“This is the first segment of what this dream means to us,” said Norman Camp, co-chairman of Partners for Environmental Justice. “There is now in Southeast Raleigh a place for children and seniors, young and old alike to commune with nature.”

Walking along the greenway with Ed Milligan, Partners for Environmental Justice’s other co-chairman, Camp said their group hopes to restore the entire wetland area over the next 10 years.

At that point, a small plastic bag fluttered across the greenway, and Milligan stooped to pick it up.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “it’s always a constant battle.”

Reprinted with Permission of The News & Observer of Raleigh,

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Powe Elementary School WorldLegacy Project

by | Jan 8, 2015 | Article, Children, Powe Elementary School, powearticle

Powe Elementary School

This WorldLegacy Leadership project created a sustainable garden. Students, parents and many others planted many edible plants and trees using gardening methods that did not require watering. Budget: $15,000. November 2003. NC61.

WorldLegacy Project Community spirit taking root

Powe School, neighbors will share new garden

AL CARSON acarson@heraldsun.com
December 8, 2003

They’re growing more than just children at E.K. Powe Elementary School.Sprouting along with the youngsters are pecans, broccoli, cabbage, cherries, figs, apples, blackberries, raspberries and grapes, to name some of the future foodstuffs volunteers have planted in the school’s new “edible garden.”

Volunteers from a leadership training group teamed with a neighborhood group in recent weeks to plant a variety of fruits and vegetables in front of the school, located at 913 Ninth St., for use by the community and the school.

Members of WorldLegacy N.C. 61 leadership team, an outgrowth of a Morrisville organization called the WorldLegacy, called the school out of the blue in late November, saying that a planned community service project had fallen through, and that they wanted to plant a garden at the school, Principal Brandon Patterson said.

“Even more wonderful than that, they were appreciative,” he said. “They kept thanking me for the opportunity. It was really just amazing.”

Community members, educators and students gathered to dedicate the garden in a ceremony last week.

A few days after meeting with the group, which worked in conjunction with the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, volunteers were getting their hands dirty, finishing the work over a three-day weekend.

The garden not only makes the school more attractive to look at, Patterson said, but also will serve an educational purpose.

“Being a school with a science focus, it’s wonderful to have another set of items for kids to learn from to look at the growth cycles, to look at the comparison between this garden without pesticides to one with pesticides,” he said.

The neighborhood association, which plans to maintain the plot using strictly organic methods, says it will encourage local residents to use the garden as well.

People from the neighborhood would be welcome to take home clippings or seeds from the garden to plant at home, Patterson said.

Reprinted from The Herald-Sun, (Durham, NC)

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