Thanks to volunteers from Christus Victor Lutheran Church, Moretz Manor residents are ready to roll up their sleeves in the garden.
Each year, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) designates a day for service called “God’s work. Our hands.” On this day, member churches are encouraged to serve their neighbor by completing a community project.
When it came time to choose a project the Christus Victor congregation wasted no time in deciding they wanted to do something for Moretz Manor, which literally fit the description of neighbor since it’s only a few miles away from the church.
Moretz Manor, Lutheran Services Carolinas (LSC)’s traumatic brain injury (TBI) group home, opened in 2020 and is home to six residents who receive round-the-clock assistance and work with Certified Brain Injury teammates to build skills toward independent living and increase socialization.
“A few of us visited Moretz Manor in the spring and we saw a dilapidated garden bed in the yard,” said Neil Frank, the congregation member who led the project. “Some of the residents wanted to work in the bed but it really needed attention. So, three of us from our community garden at church came and got the garden back in shape.”
But then, Frank and his community garden volunteers learned that some of the Moretz Manor residents are in wheelchairs and can’t work in the garden bed. That sparked the idea of raised beds and gave the church a meaningful project for God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday, which was September 12 this year.
“We thought this would be a great community project for the residents at Moretz Manor since the interest was there, but they couldn’t assemble the elevated garden boxes,” Frank said.
The team at Moretz Manor purchased three kits for elevated beds and nine members of the church came out that Sunday to assemble them, fill them with good garden soil and compost, and provide residents with lettuce and kale seeds, which are simple vegetables to grow and will be a good start for the garden, Frank said.
“There was a lot of excitement there that day, and a few of the residents even helped with assembling the beds,” Frank said. “Many were getting very excited about the potential of growing their own vegetables and started brainstorming on what else can be planted next spring.”
For more information on Lutheran Services Carolinas’ TBI services and Moretz Manor visit http://lscarolinas.net/tbi-services/