Anythink Garden Project Launches this Spring

Community Gardens Scheduled for Newly Renovated Commerce City and Perl Mack Libraries

Due to a generous grant from the Tri-County Health Department, community gardens are scheduled to open this spring at Anythink Commerce City, located at 7185 Monaco St. in Commerce City, and Anythink Perl Mack, located at 7611 Hilltop Circle in north Denver. The grant funds are part of the $10.5 million, two-year grant that Tri-County received as part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative, which promotes healthy living in communities across the country. The library district received a grant of $75,000 to fund the project.

Anythink has partnered with Denver Urban Gardens to develop these community gardens at the two libraries. Community members are invited to sign up for plots that they will maintain throughout the growing season. As part of the Anythink Garden Project, the libraries will hold programming on gardening, nutrition and cooking. Community volunteer workdays will also be held this spring, where residents are invited to help work on the gardens, building raised beds and creating pathways. Dates for the community volunteer days will be announced in the next month.

“This is one more way that Anythink libraries have established themselves as community gathering places,” says Anythink public services director Ronnie Storey-Ewoldt, who is spearheading the Garden Project. “Not only do we want to promote ideas and creativity, but through these gardens our libraries will also promote healthy living and sustainability.”

To reserve a plot at Anythink Commerce City, please contact Deborah Hogue at dhogue@anythinklibraries.org or 303-287-0063. For a plot at Anythink Perl Mack, please contact Anet Martinez at amartinez@anythinklibraries.org. Visit anythinklibraries.org for more info and upcoming programming as part of the Anythink Garden Project.

About AnythinkTM

Anythink is a new style of library – a place of unlimited imagination, where play inspires creativity and lifelong learning. Rangeview Library District serves the residents of Adams County with seven Anythink libraries and Anythink in Motion – the district’s mobile library – and is one of the recipients of the 2010 National Medal of Museum and Library Service from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Construction and renovations are underway on one existing library scheduled to open in spring 2011. For more information, go to anythinklibraries.org.