Local Groups Assist With Correctional Facility Garden
On Saturday, June 8, a group of local volunteers assisted with planting at the St. Lawrence County Correctional Facility’s community garden. A total of 21 volunteers from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Canton, Clarkson University Honors Program, and SUNY Canton spent about 3 hours planting, mulching, digging, and watering.
The facility garden has been in operation for several years, with volunteers including both incarcerated individuals and local community members. The produce grown is used to feed the population of the correctional facility, with extra produce being donated to local groups.
Cpl. Rod Votra, Programs Director/Training Coordinator of the St. Lawrence Sheriff’s Office, was unsure if the project would be able to continue this year due to lack of incarcerated individuals able to assist. After a call for volunteers from the community, he said, “I was almost instantly moved by all of the responses I received from people willing to help out.”
The volunteers included members of the Unitarian Universalist Church’s Social Justice Initiative who are working on criminal justice issues in the North Country this year in preparation for their conference in the fall. Ten members of the Clarkson University Honors program also participated. The students are all upperclassmen doing Summer Research on campus through the Honors Program under the direction of Karyn Crispo, Associate Director of Academic Advising and Scholarship Preparation in the Honors Program. One student even commuted from Watertown to participate in the garden planting.
Cpl. Rod Votra offered a heartfelt thank you to all the volunteers for their hard work. Special thanks also went out to Paul Hetzler of Cooperative Extension and Megan Bowdish of Never Tire Farm in Lisbon, for their generous donation of plants to the garden for the past few years.