2022-CANCELLED: Marathon SWAT: Community Food Gardening @ Civic Center Park #1

Start Date-End Date: 09/13/2022-09/13/2022 Land Manager Office: Grow Local Colorado Land Manager Contact: Barbara Masoner Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Summary: Help maintain vegetable gardens in Civic Center Park. Description: Where You'll Be: Bordered by the State Capitol, the City and County Building, and the Denver Art Museum, Civic Center Park is the centerpiece of Denver's green space. The park blooms with 25,000 square feet of flower beds each summer and serves as a popular event site. Civic Center Park also hosts two Grow Local Colorado gardens, both of which are maintained primarily by Return Peace Corps Volunteers. All harvest from these two gardens supports The Gathering Place, a drop-in center for women, children and transgender individuals experiencing poverty or homelessness. What You'll Do: VOC is excited to team up with our long-term partner, Grow Local Colorado, to plant and harvest vegetable gardens that demonstrate the beauty of edible gardens, engage community participation, and inspire Denver residents to grow their own vegetable gardens. On this project, you will help maintain a vegetable garden and harvest ripe produce that was planted earlier this year by VOC volunteers. Volunteer work will be fun, easy, and child-friendly. Why It Matters: The vegetables that volunteers plant will be harvested throughout the growing season and donated to local food banks, homeless shelters, and families in need. This partnership with Grow Local Colorado creates a more connected community; demonstrates the beauty and efficacy of edible gardens; inspires residents to plant their own vegetable gardens; and contributes to a more sustainable food chain by reducing our carbon footprint. About Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) is the state's oldest, largest, and leading outdoor stewardship nonprofit organization. Founded in 1984 to motivate and enable people to become active stewards of Colorado's natural resources, VOC has engaged nearly 128,000 people in more than 1,000 volunteer projects for a donated labor value of $26 million. Through award-winning youth and volunteer programs, leadership training, capacity-building programs, and collaborative efforts with nonprofits and land management agencies, VOC is an invaluable resource in Colorado, especially as our outdoor stewardship needs are approaching near-crisis levels. For more information, visit www.voc.org or call 303-715-1010. Latitude/Longitude: 39.739240, -104.988833 Additional Information: Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Easy High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 15 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: Total Youth Volunteers Attended: Total Volunteer Days: Total Unique Volunteers: Total Volunteer Hours: 0 Staff Hours: 0 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: I was scheduled to be the VOC project manager leading this event, but since I came down sick with COVID, Linda Kiker from Grow Local Colorado agreed to run the project solo. We did not have any other VOC project staff available to take my place. In my reminder email, I told volunteers to meet on the south side of the McNichols building (also where Linda was waiting), but unfortunately, that afternoon, I received calls from two volunteers who reported that they were unable to find Linda upon arriving at the meeting location described in the reminder email. I checked in with Linda, who said she was waiting at the assigned meeting location at the correct time and she didn't see any volunteers. The two volunteers who called me ended up leaving after looking for a 1/2 hour, and Linda left after waiting for participants for one hour. I did not hear from any of the rest of the registered participants about whether they attempted to find the Linda and/or the project location or not. Successes and Challenges: Lessons Learned: The biggest lesson learned was that it is important to be highly visible to volunteers in urban project locations. Typically this is achieved with either a VOC vehicle present or a blue branded VOC table/tablecloth. Without these two items, it is possible that the volunteers who tried to find the project location, may have seen Linda, but they were unable to recognize her as the leader of the VOC event since they didn't see any branded markers. I also learned that it is important to make sure that the project's street location, latitude/longitude, and reminder email directions all indicate the same exact area within the busy urban park that Civic Center Park is. After reviewing the project's street location and the latitude/longitude, I realized that these areas pointed to a slightly different area of the park than the meeting place indicated in my reminder email. It is possible some participants, were looking at the project's registration page (vs/ the reminder email) for meeting directions, which may have been the source of their confusion. Special Notes: After learning that the project did not occur as planned, I invited all the registered participants to join the Thursday, 9/15 Marathon project at Civic Center Park to make up for the event that didn't happen on 9/13. The two volunteers who attempted to show up (the ones I spoke with on the phone) were unable to attend the Thursday event due to their schedules. I did not hear from any other volunteers if they planned to attend Thursday's event instead or not. I let Aimee know of the situation and since Marathon has already paid $3,500 for their SWAT projects, we did not offer a refund, but plan to come to a conclusion if they approach VOC with a complaint about the first project not occurring. At the time of this summary, we have not heard any complaints from Marathon. Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: