Photos by Rachel Nemeh
About 100 volunteers spent four hours on Saturday morning revitalizing downtown Phoenix’s Growhouse, a property at Garfield and Sixth streets that provides garden plots for community members to rent and grow their own produce.
The effort was part of the nonprofit HandsOn Greater Phoenix’s 14th annual A Day for Downtown, a day when volunteers renovate Phoenix neighborhoods, parks, schools and nonprofits. Saturday’s event drew more than 500 volunteers for projects throughout central Phoenix, according to the HandsOn website.
The Growhouse and Roosevelt Row volunteering activities were the largest projects of the day, HandsOn vice president Chris Helmuth said.
Participants at Growhouse painted the outside of the Growhouse building, extended a wall along the garden bed and sanded and stained picnic tables at the A.R.T.S. Market lot on Roosevelt Street between Fourth and Fifth streets. Others picked up trash and painted over graffiti along Roosevelt Row.
The HandsOn nonprofit has partnered with Growhouse since 2008, when the garden was created.
“It’s been a neighborhood that we’ve seen grow and thrive, and we certainly want to have a hand in helping it be successful,” Helmuth said.
Kenny Barrett, founder of Growhouse and programs manager for Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation, said HandsOn has been vital to the growth of the gardens. When Growhouse began in 2008, a group from HandsOn planted some of the first trees on the lot, Barrett said.
Volunteers from HandsOn continue to come to the Growhouse every month, Helmuth said. They typically tend to the plots during those visits but can continue to work on larger structural projects, such as those undertaken on Saturday.
“The thing about the Growhouse is there’s always something that it needs,” she said. “Luckily, we’re there every month and some of those projects can continue.”
Barrett, who recently purchased a house in the Garfield Historic District, said he knows the importance of preserving his own backyard of downtown Phoenix. He sees the missions of A Day for Downtown and Growhouse working together to involve community members in revitalizing blighted spaces and cultivating their city.
“It’s our community, so if we want it to be better and if we want a better quality of life, then we need to make it better,” Barrett said. “I’m a huge proponent of taking matters into your own hands and beautifying your space.”
Tempe resident Jim Leonard returned to Growhouse on Saturday after working in the gardens last month. He spent Saturday morning painting the outside of the building a deep green color.
“It’s a chance to do a little part to make the city look a lot better,” Leonard said, paint roller in hand.
He said he heard about A Day for Downtown through the HandsOn nonprofit, through which he regularly volunteers for other organizations, including St. Mary’s Food Bank and Paz de Cristo Outreach Center.
“It’s very worthwhile,” Leonard said. “You always get more than you give at these things.”
Helmuth said she hopes the work done at A Day for Downtown will bring attention to what it’s like to live in downtown Phoenix and motivate others to visit the area.
“We don’t have a lot of neighborhoods in Phoenix where you can just walk around and go from store to store or business to business, and you can definitely do that on Roosevelt Row,” Helmuth said. “You want to keep things looking as good as possible so that people do want to come and visit.”
Contact the reporter at emregan1@asu.edu
