Sometimes it takes a moment of silence to allow a story to emerge, bright and beautiful, between one breath and the next.
I discovered this one evening in late August when I came to meditate with Lori Paletta-Davis in her sunflower patch above the tennis courts on Rolling Meadows Road.
We sat surrounded by a who’s who of sunflowers, from spiky splashes of red and white to tall nodding heads filled with seed. Breathe in. Dragonflies danced against a backdrop of petals painted gold against blue sky, a living Ukrainian flag. Breathe out. Lori has been planting sunflowers here and at her home, giving seeds away to friends and strangers ever since her son Daniel “left this earth in a car accident” in 2019. I came to catch one of the last weekly meditations she and yoga teacher Crista Turner had been offering all summer to bring good vibes – especially the healing energy of acceptance of what life brings – to themselves and those who might join them.
I was just over COVID-19, out of isolation and ready to reconnect with friends, ready to find a story here in this place where decades of volunteer neighbors and friends have gathered, playing tennis for health and camaraderie, doing good work at the Greene County Historical Society Museum, getting involved making monuments to veterans and helping the Greene County Food Pantry grow into the hunger fighting force it is today. I looked at the Community Garden sign on the fence by the pantry across the road and made a mental note to stop by and get an update. The sound of laughter on the courts below was a backdrop as we sat, taking it all in and breathing it all out.
If anyone remembers when the county tennis courts got relocated here, it’s Jake Blaker, retired director of the county Parks and Rec program, only a phone call away in Florida. He is a cheerful refresher course in how we got here.
The old courts across from the fairgrounds were built in 1971 and by 2006 “were in need of major work,” Jake tells me. The decision was made to move the courts and “Gene Lee and I hunted for the right property.” What the county owned around the Greene County Historical Museum became the Goldilocks spot that would begin attracting others to this woodsy corner, tucked beside Garards Fort Road, beside the old county owned schoolhouse. For the year it took to move the courts, the public was invited to play at Waynesburg College. In 2019, as Jake prepared to retire. “we saw people moving towards pickle ball, so we converted one court.”
Bret Moore, who now heads Parks and Rec gave an update: “Ron Headlee and Dan Bazzoli approached us in 2020 about adding additional pickle ball courts. With the explosion of the sport’s popularity, we thought it was a great idea.” This healthy get out and play initiative got support from Iron Synergy and WVU Medicine, Moore added. “The public-private effort worked perfectly for that project.” The county has also renovated the small schoolhouse on the property to be used for a military museum, with Greene County Historical Society creating the displays.
When I finally caught up with Master Gardener trainees on their Friday morning harvest detail, September was bringing an end to the season but the peppers and tomatoes were still coming on strong. Produce gets weighed and added to the pantry’s stash of fresh produce to give out, a welcome addition to local families.
The garden has been part of the Corner Cupboard Food Bank’s commitment to fighting hunger since 2016. Director Candace Webster and Waynesburg University dean of students Kelli Hardie were inspired to turn WU student community service hours into the help needed to build the first five raised-bed boxes for the garden. The project used lumber donated from Wayne Lumber; county prisoners and others did their part to create the growing space and a hefty grant from Nobel Energy helped make Candace’s dream come true. By the next spring the raised beds were bursting with plants, donated by Central Greene FFA. Converting the neatly trimmed lawn beside the food bank building into fertile garden space has also given Greene County’s Master Gardener trainees and graduates a place for hands on learning and a chance to fulfill their commitment to 50 hours of volunteer service a year once they graduate.
Now that the growing season is almost over Candace is looking forward to the pumpkin patch that will be planted outside the garden fence next spring to grow jack o lanterns for pumpkin pies and toasted seeds for the families who visit the county’s seven food bank pantries. The view from the garden is an amazing overlook of the courts and the new pavilion in the Greene County Veterans Memorial Park. This stately place to gather and remember has curving walkways, monolithic pillars filled with names of those who served and granite benches for reflection. Dedicated in 2021, this park was the dream of Vietnam Veteran Rick Black (1946-2021), brought to life by the tireless enthusiasm and volunteer work of veterans, neighbors and friends. I’ve scrolled through group’s Facebook page that documents just what it took to create this place to honor those who protects us and strolled the pathway that connects it to the World War I memorial near the tennis courts. Which is where I met up with Glenn Toothman on a shady afternoon to swap stories and be quietly amazed that the old adage “before the reality comes the dream” has been proven true so many times in this little corner of Greene County.
Glenn told me that he and fellow history lover Candice Buchanan, who now works for the Library of Congress in Washington DC, discovered that each of them had two relatives among the Greene County soldiers who died on or near Rain Day – July 29 1918 – in France. That curious fact brought them together to dig into this almost forgotten bit of history. Their search took them to France in 2017, looking for the towns and the battles that took so many Greene County lives. They were surprised and impressed that the villagers they encountered were getting ready to celebrate the end of WWI’s Centennial the next year. Inspired, they headed home and got to work creating this monument on county land beside the tennis court. The site includes Memory Medallions standing guard between memorial trees to help all who visit remember the lives of the 58 Greene County soldiers who died in that “war to end all wars.”
The Greene County Legacy Association held its dedication services at just the right time: on the eleventh day and eleventh hour of November 2018.