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Work Ethic Camp inmates get into dirty business
McCOOK, Neb. -- Gardener Janet Hepp believes in the therapeutic value of "getting your hands dirty" in a garden.
Earlier this summer, Janet and her husband, Greg, donated garden vegetables and an extra, unused garden storage shed to the Nebraska Department of Corrections Work Ethic Camp in McCook, Nebraska, with the hope that inmates would get their hands dirty planting, watering, caring for and harvesting their own garden produce.
"I envisioned this garden full of vegetables," Janet said as she and her 4-year-old daughter Ellie Gillen picked ripe-red cherry tomatoes Monday while they visited with WEC road crew sergeant John Gomez about the summer's garden project.
Sgt. Gomez said the new garden shed next to the garden was "a world of help," explaining that the garden tools had previously been stored on the south side of the WEC building. With the garden on the northwest corner of the property, getting ready to garden each day -- and often forgotten tools -- meant many trips traipsing back-and-forth, he said.
The inmates poured the concrete for the shed, and assembled it on site.
Janet said she loves plants and loves to garden. "There's value in getting your hands dirty in a garden," she said.
"I hoped a garden would give the inmates a learning experience ... a sense of wonder ... an opportunity to come outside and work in the dirt."
Sgt. Gomez said the garden will only be bigger and better each year, as they worked during the early summer to prepare the soil for plants.
Janet hopes the garden has a long-reaching impact on the inmates, and she challenges the McCook community to help make that possible for more inmates by donating garden seeds and six-packs of plants next spring.