Like Finding a Soulmate
By Deb Vance, CGC Dirt Crew Member
I chose my outfit mindfully before meeting up with my friends the other day, and during the entire morning no one at all remarked about my clothes. They didn’t bat an eye about my dirt-stained shirt or my mud-caked shoes. Nor did they say a peep about Marilyn’s baggy shorts or Alice’s funny hat.
Meet the Dirt Crew, one of the friendliest, smartest, most enjoyable groups of women I've had the pleasure to know. Even before I met them, I'd done so much thinking, seeking and planning that they happened to be on the path I was traveling. It was just a matter of time.
Before we moved from the east coast to Cincinnati nine years ago, I did as much research as possible about venues and activities I could explore in that new-to-me city. Topping my list was the Civic Garden Center (CGC), a nonprofit environmental education facility.
Everything about this place intrigues me. It’s on the former estate of philanthropist Cornelius J. Hauck, who willed it to the city in 1967. During his lifetime, Hauck collected tree specimens for an arboretum he called "Sooty Acres" and opened his property to the public as a respite from hot summers and dirty city air. Now as the CGC, the property showcases various garden rooms—herb garden, vegetable garden, rain garden, shade garden, serenity garden and a community garden. It also features a modest building with classroom spaces where instruction and activities take place throughout the year. And there’s an environmentally self-sustainable building fashioned out of an old gas station which had been property adjacent to Sooty Acres. This Green Learning Station now has a rooftop garden and demonstrates how solar panels work and how rainwater is captured and used.
As a long-time gardener, I immediately loved the very idea of this place. For one thing, I used to fantasize that if I died wealthy, I'd want to leave my fortune to create something exactly like this. When I discovered such a place in my future hometown, I just knew that anyone associated with the CGC would be someone with whom I had a lot in common.
As soon as possible after unpacking and getting settled in our new home, I visited CGC. Upon entering the building, I told the woman who greeted me that I was interested in volunteering. Without hesitation, she said, “You’ll want to join the Dirt Crew. They meet on Wednesday. Bring your lunch!"
When I showed up the following Wednesday, I was warmly welcomed and quickly integrated into the group as they moved throughout the acres weeding, pruning, planting, talking and laughing, At the end of the morning, we all—dirty and sweaty as we were—gathered outdoors for lunch. We’re still doing that on Wednesdays today.
Finding the CGC felt like finding a soulmate. Our relationship just had to be.
Volunteering with the Dirt Crew is just one of the many ways people in our community support the CGC. Others choose to give financially—and when you join them, you’re supporting our work with volunteers maintaining Hauck Botanic Garden, helping community gardens thrive, restoring and maintaining urban greenspaces, teaching the next generation and more.