Congratulations to the six people who have been nominated to run for the NYCCGC Board of Directors 2012. Kate Temple-West is a brand new nominee.The other five dedicated people, Karen Washington, Vandra Thorburn, Magali Regis, Haja Worley and Eric Thoman currently serve on the Board.
KATE TEMPLE-WEST
I has been a community gardener in NYC for 16 years. She is the director of Children's Magical Garden on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a community garden with a focus on nature-based mentorship and arts for children and youth. She is a practicing clinical herbalist, with a specialty in local plants, and a certified permaculture designer. She's been on the board of More Gardens! since 2006. She has received four Citizens Committee grants, as well as received larger grants for arts organizations (under another hat as a theater director.) She has done coalition building with youth, schools, and local grassroots organizations ranging from Grand Street Settlement to GOLES housing group. She is also a playwright and Dancemeditation teacher. She loves breathing deeply and listening well, especially in meetings.
I am deeply grateful for the work of NYCCGC, and would like to help wherever I can be of assistance, with a focus on outreach, membership participation, youth involvement, and increasing diversity.
KAREN WASHINGTON
(Karen currently serves as the President of NYCCGC) Since 1985 I have been a community activist, striving to make the NYC a better place to live. As a community gardener and advocate,I stood up and spoke out for garden protection and preservation. As a member of the La Familia Verde Garden Coalition, we launched a Community Garden Run Farmers Market, bringing garden fresh produce to our neighbors. I am also the Co- Founder of Black Urban Growers (BUGS) an organization of volunteers committed to building networks and community support for growers in both urban and rural settings. As the current president of the New York City Community Garden Coalition my term as board president is ending. I would still like to remain a board member to concentrate on building leadership within the gardening and farming movement.
VANDRA THORBURN
I am pleased to submit my name to the NYCCGC to stand again for the Board of Directors. I am developing a unique business to help households and small businesses recycle their food waste, creating the first door-to-garden service to build composting sites. Last year we developed a 10-ton composting site at Hearts + Hand Community Garden in East New York. There are 600 community gardens in NYC most of them do not have functioning composting sites. I hope that my presence on the NYCCGC will bring attention to this plight and my interest and expertise a solution.
MAGALI REGIS
(Magali currently serves as the Secretary of NYCCGC) My involvement with community gardens started when I became a member of my local garden, Creative Little Garden on East 6 Street in the East Village. It was the mid-90s and many gardens were being bulldozed by the Giuliani administration. My friend Francoise, an avid and determined garden activist, drafted me to attend rallies at City Hall, make flyers and phone calls to elected officials and help plan the Standing our ground rally at Bryant Park. Ive been a garden activist ever since; signing petitions, making and distributing flyers, going to endangered garden sites to protest the destruction of gardens, rallies and public hearings. I joined the board of NYCCGC in the fall of 2005. I am still a member of Creative Little Garden, and also the garden coordinator for the Toyota Children's garden on E 11 Street. My vision is to have all community gardens in NYC have at least one of their gardener as member of NYCCGC, to have every public official know we exist and what our mission is, to inform the general public about what we do and stand for, to have a stronger participation by the membership in our committees, to obtain more grants so that we can have staff -even a part-time director - who can do what it takes to strengthen our organization (membership development, legislation to make all gardens permanent, developing new opportunities for new gardens to be created, events planning, grant research, to name a few. Also looking forward to seeing a new generation of leaders to continue and grow the movement.
HAJA WORLEY
(Haja currently serves as the Treasurer of NYCCGC) I am a founding member of the Joseph Daniel Wilson Memorial Garden on West 122nd Street in Harlem; I have worked within the NYCCGC since 1996, and was honored to be its first president. I am strongly committed to our community gardens city-wide and to our Citys need for the development of the urban forest and a clean, healthful environment. I believe it is critical for city-dwellers to know and to do more about the impact they have on their environment, not only, but to be given the opportunity to grow their own food, and to understand the importance of consuming locally grown produce. Real estate development on all levels will continue in this real estate-driven metropolis. We, the NYCCGC, are gardeners, not only, but guardians of the land. We need to educate and activate the public on the issues. Every New Yorker should be involved in some way, not only in beautifying the City with its greensward, but in coming to understand that without green, without close attention paid to how we build, renovate, and take care of waste, where and how our food is grown, we threaten not only individual lives of city-dwellers, but the very life and future of our total infrastructure. Moreover, every child should have an opportunity to care for the land, to learn about growing and preserving his/her own food. I am extremely proud of what the NYCCGC has accomplished in the years since we first came together. I would like to continue to serve as a board member.
ERIC THOMAN
(Eric currently serves as the Vice President of NYCCGC) I'd like to nominate myself for re-election to the board of NYCCGC. I am the founder of the Backyard Garden in Brooklyn, instructor of Community Gardening at the New School and a garden consultant at NYCHA. I can envision the gardens and the gardeners themselves actively promoting preservation of their land and the wisdom of how to work it, as we share our collective knowledge and propagate a healthy and diverse community of urban gardeners. It been an honor to serve to serve with this group and with your blessings, I would like to continue.
