Back in June, Jasmine and our friend Sean came up with the idea to have a Garden Fiesta & Potluck later in the summer. We had it this past Saturday, and it was a wonderful experience. In preparation for it, we built a small semi-permanent stage out of pallets (donated from College Admissions and SCCAP) and an old dorm door we found in a dumpster! We used the extra pallets to hang artwork on. We had artwork submitted from a junior here at Gettysburg, Jasmine, our friend Walner (who helped us build the stage), and the Lexicon of Sustainability posters we had in CPS.
Jasmine securing the pallet to display art on
Adrienne helping to build the stage
Student art display
We set all of this up before 6, when people started to arrive. Our first musical guest was a Music Education student named Emma, who played the fiddle for us!
The turnout was fantastic- we probably had around 50 people. The weather was also gorgeous, so people sat around talking and eating all the wonderful food! (of which there was actually too much of!)
An artistic view of the Fiesta guests
Jasmine performed on guitar and our friend Maura joined. Kim’s daughter, Ani, also sat on stage with them while they sang.
Jasmine & Maura
Our friend Ana brought hula hoops, which was also a popular activity for the night:
Another friend of ours, Emily, brought drums! So we started a drum circle just for fun:
Drum Circle
It was a really neat mix of families, students, and community members. There was a lot of laughing, noise-making. and eating, of course. As the sun set, the sky glowed pink, and our little mason jar tea candles looked beautiful.
We hope to have many more social gatherings at the garden in the future! 🙂
-Adrienne
Painted Turtle Farm 