The Sheppard-Pride Center

The Sheppard-Pride Senior Citizen & Youth Community Center (SPCC) of Andersonville is springing into action with this lovely weather. The new season has allowed the SPCC to turn a new leaf within the community by hosting events such as Community Gardening Day and an Earth Day Celebration.

This past weekend, the SPCC hosted Community Gardening Day which was a great success due to donors and volunteers. This event involved sprucing up the current garden beds along the front and side of the SPCC while incorporating host and nectar plants which will serve as a pollinator habitat for birds, bees, and butterflies. (We are happy to announce that the application has been submitted for us to join the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail.) Additionally, the day included establishing two raised beds termed, “Salsa Gardens,” at different heights which supports the inclusion of seniors and youth, adding flowers to the base of existing trees, planting camellias, placing a wooden picnic table, creating a sitting area with an arbor, installing additional fruit trees and shrubs at the local parks, and more. The event also proudly served as a source of hands-on education for the local community. Volunteers learned tasks from mixing soil and setting up drip irrigation to when the best times are to water plants and how to make a simple, yet beautiful arbor. The day was long, the community was in good spirits, and there was a sense of purity and promise in the air that was undeniably precious.

The SPCC looks forward to the newfound growth within our community and wants to thank each and every donor and volunteer for making the event possible. We would also love to invite the public to our Earth Day Celebration on Tuesday, April 22nd at 5:30 p.m. at Asberry-Holloway Park on Johnson Street in Andersonville. Please join us in showing appreciation for our Planet Earth which gives abundantly and serves by providing not only our basic needs but proves more than worthy of our care and support day after day, generation after generation, and lifetime after lifetime. Come share our love of planting and gardening and remember, sometimes it’s okay to get your hands dirty.

Please show your support by following us on Facebook at Sheppard Pride Senior Citizen & Youth Community Center. Be sure to “Like” us on Facebook and check back for events and updates. For ongoing events, please consider supporting the SPCC. Ask how you can contribute by planting a seed today to grow and blossom into a better tomorrow!

Thank you to the following donors:

Lowe’s of Americus, Tractor Supply of Americus, Farmer’s Seed and Feed, American Camellia Society: Massee Lane Gardens, Guardian Property Inspections LLC., Kay Preston, Estate of Francis Wall, and Penny Williams.

Thank you to the following volunteers:

Stephanie Wooden, Chris Wooden, Melanie Stubbs, Nikki Thompson, Brandon Gross, Rowan Gross, Gaia Gross, Penny Williams, Phil Vinson, Lulu Vinson, Kay Preston, Nancy Garrison, Weston Wooden, Shekela Wooden, Georgia Wooden, Isaiah Dozier, and Bobby Rathel.