Planting seeds of hope: Neighborhood Sunflower Project beautifies libraries, rec centers in Shreveport
Shreveport Green’s Neighborhood & Education Program teamed up with SPAR Park Advisory Committee members (known as PAC) and Shreve Memorial Library Managers to beautify neighborhoods with sunflowers. Back in April, during Earth Day week, participants met and agreed to participate in Shreveport Green’s “Neighborhood Sunflower Project” to plant sunflower seeds at city recreation centers and libraries. They learned about the project, how to create flower beds and plant and care for the plants as they grew. Citizens can visit 15 of the 18 locations to see the bright, yellow, tall flowers soaking up the sun.
This effort was implemented to bring beauty and hope to areas hit the hardest by litter and crime, while also spreading beauty across the city. “We aren’t just planting Sunflowers, we are also planting seeds of hope,” Casaundra Calloway, Neighborhood & Education Program Director, said. A few people were asked why they participated with this project and here’s what they said: “We participated because it was something new and part of a group effort to beautify the parks”, says Evelyn Phillips, President of the Park Advisory Committee at Mamie Hicks Park.
“We did it because we were concerned about the appearance and landscape of our park. And we want people to drive by our park and see the Sunflowers which reflect our smiling faces”, says Willie Mae Joyner, President of PAC at Airport Park. And Pam White, Manager of Hollywood/Union Library, said the reason they participated was, “I wanted my community where the library is located to experience that level of beautification and to expose the people to something as simple as flowers which can brighten their day as they pass by.”
Planting the flowers at 8 public park/recreation centers and 8 Libraries enhances the appearance of the neighborhoods their located in, thus making residents proud and happy to see such beauty.
The “Neighborhood Sunflower Project” is a new project created to increase beauty and hope in areas that need them the most. Too often urban neighborhoods are marred by crime, littered streets, and vacant or abandoned properties. Here was an opportunity to fight blight with beauty. We plan to continue these efforts as long as the people are interested in doing it. We hope to expand and eventually have Sunflowers all over the city each spring/summer as funding allows. This project happened because of support from the Carolyn W. and Charles T. Beaird Family Foundation, State Farm, and Capital One. They helped us to bring a vision to life. In addition to these locations, other partners have planted Sunflowers and we can’t wait until they start blooming at: Ochsner/LSU campus on Kings Highway, LSU-Shreveport, Southern University Shreveport, and the vacant property formerly occupied by the old Sheraton Hotel property located at 3880 Greenwood Road.
Here's where you can see the sunflowers:
Recreation Centers
A.B. Palmer, 547 E.79th Street and Line Avenue
Airport Park, 6500 Kennedy Drive
Bilberry Park, 1902 Alabama and Lakeshore Drive
Bill Cockrell, 4109 Pines Road
Chris Hays, 4300 Illinois Street
Lakeside Park, 2200 Milam Street
Mamie Hicks, 200 Mayfair Drive
Southern Hills, 1002 W. Bert Kouns
Libraries
Atkins, 3704 Greenwood Road
Cedar Grove/Line, 8303 Line Avenue
Hamilton/ South Caddo, 2111 W. Bert Kouns
Hollywood/Union, 2105 Hollywood
Wallette, 363 Hearne Avenue
North Caddo,
North Shreveport, 4844 North Market
West Shreveport, 4380 Pines Road
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Neighborhood Sunflower Project beautifies Shreveport
