A unity garden can be conceived of, planned, even planted alone. But it is not fully a unity garden until someone else joins you in the endeavor. This page is to say thank you to all the people without whose help this first unity garden would not have come into existence.

In reverse chronological order, thank you to President Esther Lee, Vice President Jessica Lee, and all the members of the Bethlehem, PA chapter of the NAACP for sponsoring the establishment of the first Umoja garden. In particular, thank you to Rayah Levy for her love of children and her articulation of the way concrete symbols can be perfect and powerful seeds when planted in young minds, and to Edmonia and Kerney Glover for being courageous enough to speak on behalf of the idea, even when momentary winds seemed to be blowing in the other direction.

Also, a deep and heartfelt thank you to Kelly Allen, proprietor of Northampton Community College’s Northeast 40. He received the proposal for this first garden in April 2023 and worked with and on behalf of us until we were able to plant it in mid-June, which was later than expected.

Many thanks, as well, to John and Kathleen O’Donnell. Our friendship is one of the gifts that came out of a difficult portion in both of lives. The conversations we have had in his back yard and the thoughts elicited by some of his reading recommendations, especially Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, where absolutely rolling around in my head when I sat down to pen the Umoja Garden Proposal.

Going even further back than that is the profound thanks I feel for Louise and Ron Linder-Hershkowitz’s example of how life should be lived. When I began teaching thirty-some years ago, I was not making a lot of money. So, I took a job at the YMCA to make ends meet. I meet Louis there, and we became friends. She invited me to Thanksgiving that fall, and has made me feel like family ever since. Watching their entire family and seeing how the Linder clan treat so much of the world as extended family was a big part of the inspiration behind the vision for asking people to start Umoja unity garden.

Finally, thank you to the many people who touched my life as I was growing up in Colorado Springs, CO. Somehow, it has fallen out of fashion to say that, “It takes a village.” But I was raised in a time and place where if any child’s behavior faltered, even if it was ten blocks from home, by the time we returned our parents were waiting. That was because, in the interim, one or multiple neighbors had informed them of all the particulars. Some people would say I grew up in just one more small town or city block in America. But I would say that I grew up in a village, and am lastly and enduringly thankful to my principals, teachers, neighbors, and friends for the memory of that experience and the innate understanding it gave me of Umoja.