It may be too early for tomatoes, but it’s never too soon to grow in faith and service.
The Young Vincentians, the youth apostolate of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of St. Benedict, Chesapeake, spent two Saturdays this March building a community garden in the front yard of a small brick house in Norfolk’s Ghent area – the shared home of Ghent Area Ministries (GAM) and an office of Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia (CCEVA).
“I thought it would be nice to help with the garden,” sixth-grader Noah Wagler said. “It seemed like it would be worth it to sacrifice the time to help build it.”
“The people who run the office are going to plant vegetables that anyone can take,” Noah added.
Nancy Von Tersch, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s St. Benedict conference, said that the project sprouted up out of pure happenstance, when she met Tracy Fick, CEO of CCEVA, during a tour of the new Catholic Charities facilities off Military Highway.
“I was explaining to her that we were looking for a project for a youth group,” Von Tersch said, “and she said, ‘do we ever have a project for you.’ It was like divine intervention.”
Fick said that she had hoped for some time to plant a garden in the front yard of the house, to supply visitors to CCEVA and to GAM – an ecumenical organization comprised of 18 neighborhood houses of worship dedicated to serving people in need – with fresh vegetables.
“Anytime you are serving vulnerable populations, you really want people to feel respected and cared for,” she said. “So I thought, let’s make this really beautiful and just more inviting for people who come to use the center.”
“Those who are passing by can even reach over the fence, if they want, and just pick some- thing that they can use,” said Fick.
A budding partnership
Founded in 1833, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a worldwide organization of lay Catholics whose mission is to follow Christ’s call to serve people who are lonely, suffering, and in need.
The conference at St. Benedict was founded just over a year ago, in March 2022, Von Tersch said. The Young Vincentians, the organization’s youth apostolate, held its first meeting the following November.
“They started out with 11 members,” Von Tersch said. “By December, they had about 22 members. By January, they had 28. It’s been wonderful, seeing how it’s grown.”
Von Tersch said that she invited Fick and her husband, Greg – who planned and designed the community garden – to present the idea for the service project at the Young Vincentians’ February meeting.
“They told them all of what the project would entail,” she said. They gave them the diagram of the garden and the rundown of the level of commitment it would take: at least two Saturdays.
CCEVA offered to sponsor and fund the venture, if the Young Vincentians were willing to accept the task at hand.
The group voted unanimously to adopt the project, eighth-grader Elora Rusk said.
“Everyone decided that it sounded like a good idea – that they wanted to help,” she said.
Plotting and planning
During the first work session on March 4, Greg Fick volunteered to teach two shifts of teens how to use the power tools necessary to build the wooden frames of the raised beds, Von Tersch said.
On March 11, a third shift of students arrived to shovel dirt into the new beds and to mulch the surrounding areas, in order to prepare the garden for planting.
“I told them that it something that was going to require a lot of elbow grease,” Tracy Fick said, laughing.
Before they began, the students gathered by the door of the house to open their meeting with prayer. Then, fueled by oranges, peanut butter crackers and youthful enthusiasm, they set to work.
Sixth-grader Vincent Macera said he thought it would be fun to come out to the garden, since he has a lot of friends in the group.
“I just wanted to come and help,” he said, as he shoveled along the sidewalk, uprooting any vestiges of weeds.
The Ficks, Von Tersch, Mike Gray, building supervisor of GAM, as well as a few parents all gathered on the sidewalk outside of the yard’s low chain-linked fence to watch the kids’ progress. Von Tersch explained that the group is almost entirely student-run, giving the teens the chance to hone their organizational skills and to grow as servant leaders of Christ.
“They made up the schedule, and they decided who was going to work what shift,” she said. “They were responsible for distributing permission slips and for seeing all the paper- work was turned in.”
“This is their first big project out of the gate,” said Von Tersch. “They are building their own relationships as a group. It’s nice to see them develop friendships with that spirituality level.”
Flourishing together
Out on the driveway at the side of the house, a group of older teens set up an assembly-line process, shoveling dirt into wheelbarrows for the younger volunteers to distribute.
“I just wanted to help the community,” eighth-grader Zachary Macera said. “I thought it would be a good way to give back.”
“It just felt right,” tenth-grader Jayden Schilz agreed. “I like the hard work. It’s fun. But then, I do a lot of yard work.”
Fick said that CCEVA was happy to sponsor the project, a team effort by which the youth of St. Benedict, CCEVA and GAM all benefited.
“It makes sense to pool our resources and to partner with other agencies,” Fick said. “We can do so much more together.”
“These kids are phenomenal,” Von Tersch said. “They did really well. The youth decided that they wanted to do this, and they made it happen.”