Page 79 - MLD Book

the well meaning Deborah Stewart, was formed in August and was hard at work, not only interviewing candidates and doing all those things that seemed to be required by the national guidelines, but also because they were fielding multiple suggestions and questions about Elizabeth. Remember that Erdman had brought her to Calvary after Katherine left? (Those circumstances would make another jealousy story in and of itself, but I will leave that temptation to others to illuminate!) A good thing emerged from Elizabeth’s tenure that had nothing to do with her ministry to parishioners. and that was her Jewish plumber boyfriend, Bruce. He happened to own a LOT of property around 7th street, and was the one who offered Tim Duncan the use of his property to create the Garden of Goodness. Bruce and Elizabeth have now split and she is slated to marry somebody else! But the garden legacy lives on and expands and Bruce is an active participant and contributor to that.
The intent of the Garden of Goodness was to grow fresh food that would be part of the food bags we give to our clients. Bruce and Tim both worked their tails off getting the dirt in shape, and we were able to produce quite a lot of food in 2017. Added note: At this writing, I am delighted to report that the summer of 2020, in amidst all of the Covid trauma, we added a second garden off seventh street, a much larger one even, with lots of composting from Tim’s worms he keeps in the basement of his house (horrors!) and manure that Bruce confiscates from goodness knows where. The plants have flourished this past summer. I personally have picked way over 1000 green tomatoes from the giant plants at garden Two. Even after a frost as I write this in November 2020, I still picked 59, 66, and 59 on ensuing days! Energizer bunnies for sure. They finally got killed by frost on November 17. Our clients love to fry green tomatoes and have schooled us on myriad ways to fry them. Bacon grease may have won as the most flavorful (and the most caloric) way of all!! We also welcomed Fresh Stop in the summer of 2017, who provided us with leftover produce, and this has expanded and continued through 2020.
In addition to creating the Garden of Goodness in 2017, a group of six of us embarked on a fantastic new ministry that we named the Calvary Well. (Or is it Calvary’s Well? I know there was an argument over that, of course!) This also was Tim’s brainchild, and originated when he saw the homeless waiting near the underpass site of the Salvation Army on Breckenridge. They told him, one hot June day, that they would dearly love water while they waited for the evening meal. And so began our take of the Woman at the Well. It quickly expanded to cookies, then lemonade, then clothing, then popcorn, then hot chocolate when it got cold, and from that time on until Covid ruined it all, we went every Thursday afternoon to the site to serve and care for the homeless. We made friends with many and were able to help some in other ways as well. More people joined us and we expanded to peanut butter and jelly sandwich making parties in the parish hall before going to the site. As many as 20 people actively participated and many in our parish contributed peanut butter, jelly, popcorn, and money. Lou Henson deserves special mention in that regard. I will always remember boxes with 100 flip flops arriving at Calvary, courtesy of Lou, along with gloves and hats. Tim Duncan was lovingly named Captain Underpass, with Dean French as Mr. Sidekick. It has been a very exciting ministry, one we will want to continue as soon as we can. We went every week, beginning in June 2017, with temperatures ranging from 94 in summer to 20 in winter., with rain or snow sometimes chasing us for shelter at the underpass amidst those keeping their lives going there. In 2017, the city had not yet decided to clean them out, so there were many. Kim, Tonya, Alex, Amanda and her dog Skye, Jennie ...they all were regulars who became friends. Nothing deterred us until Covid spread its ugly germs. We also learned to step over the empty needle cases and spent needles. I counted seven just in one spot. But we are not finished. We will be back.