Connie, Mary + Christian worked the bean patch.
Mary Ng joined our animal care volunteer group about a year ago signing up on our website to help out at the Vendy’s Awards event. She started coming on Sundays to help with Animal Care, then got officially trained by our Animal Care trainer, Hollis Hillhouse, and has been a regular volunteer ever since, coming throughout the winter months and putting in long days to help construct the solar panel platform this spring.
Mary was born in Chinatown and has lived in the Smyth Houses since she was 5 yrs. old. She graduated from Barnard College in 2014 majoring in Math. Mary currently works as a data analyst for Haggerty Consulting helping public entities to draw down FEMA disaster funding to assist with fallout from calamities such as Superstorm Sandy.
Why volunteer with Earth Matter?
Mary responds, “It is different than anything else that I do. It is different than when I hang out with friends, from being in Manhattan. This is my big yard. I do not mind living in a small space, but enjoy this wide open space that Earth Matter has. The chickens are also a big attraction for me.”
Do you have any other composting or farming experience?
“My first time was when I was in Barnard College. I applied to be an intern at the Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science and Engineering, under the guidance of Professor Meredith Hill.” FYI, Meredith was also one of our previous rot stars.
We asked Meredith about Mary.
She responded, “Mary?! You have Mary?!” and then, “when our garden needed a barrel for hand watering the plants, Mary got one donated from a LES Pickle vendor and subwayed the barrel up to the garden!”
Mary: “Columbia Secondary Garden was my only gardening experience except for a few less than successful school-related science experiments to grow from seeds. Here at the Soil Start farm, this is my most successful time at growing anything. I grew peas. Every Thursday this past spring, I came to GI (taking the 7 am ferry), watered the pea seeds, they sprouted, then I trained them to grow on the trellis I helped make. I harvested them five times. I got about a ziplock gallon bag each time. I brought co-workers on the 7 am ferry on Thursdays to shows off what I was doing. Justin, one of my co-workers had helped his grandmother tend peas and he taught me a lot about growing peas.”
Mary regularly brings her friends as well as co-workers to our Center and always comes with a positive bright inquisitive attitude and leaves us with a renewed sense of purpose and gratitude that what we are doing is appreciated.
By Marisa DeDominicis