Volunteer Profile

Heather Burns- Mentor and Friend

Growing Gardens would like to thank Heather Burns for her work as a mentor for new home gardeners. She worked with Monique Hall and her seven children to transform a 50x 100 foot courtyard in North Portland into a thriving garden, visiting three times a week to teach and help maintain the raised beds. Heather and Monique enjoyed going to the farmers' market, attending garden workshops and sharing their passion for growing great food.

Heather, a PhD student who teaches creative writing at PSU, likes the time that she can spend getting her hands dirty away from classes. She says that it gave her an opportunity to re-enforce her gardening skills and practice some of the techniques that she had learned. Now Monique helps her sister and friends planning their gardens.

Thanks again, Heather.

Erin Reith- Backyard Garden Volunteer

A big Green Thumb thank you to Erin Reith for all her work in the Growing Gardens Back Yard Garden. Erin maintained two 8x4 foot gardens in the yard behind our office that serve as a model for our Home Gardens across the city.  Her beds were so productive that she was able to take the surplus produce to the local Hollywood Senior Center for participants to share.

Thank you, Erin for helping us show what can be done in the average back yard!

Rachael Koeson- Youth Grow LINKS Volunteer

Rachael Koeson brings tremendous amounts of time, energy, and dedication to our Youth Grow program and students. She has created tasty recipes for our Garden Club students to sample, has made informative and fun activities and posters for our classes, and  worked with students to create our first ever Garden Club cookbook!

Rachael is committed to making sure each of our students feel special when they come to Garden Club, and it is common to hear our Youth Grow students say 'I love Rachael' or 'where is Rachael?' before class begins.

Thanks, Rachael for helping our students GROW!