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RUMFORD — The Hope Association, which has sprouted out of its Briar Patch Greenhouse, will open a new greenhouse in Mexico, which the association hopes will completed just in time for the grand opening in May.
“Once again, the pots and flats have been filled with dirt, seedlings and plugs have been planted, participants are already watering and trimming plants and everyone’s anxious for opening day,” Hope Association officials said in a news release. That work is being done in the original Briar Patch on Lincoln Avenue, which opened in 2000.
But even as the work is underway, the new Briar Patch is being built on Highland Terrace in Mexico, across the street from the Mountain Valley Middle School. The new greenhouse is a rigid galvanized steel unit on a concrete foundation with smooth concrete floors designed to allow for optimal drainage and year-round use. It has polycarbonate glass panels that will be much more Maine-winters friendly and will optimize the amount of sunlight needed for growing, organizers said. It will also be self-temperature regulating and self-watering.
“The association will be able to serve 75 or more individuals with disabilities who will have greater access to the greenhouse through wider aisles, custom growing tables and the wonderful smooth concrete floors,” the news release said. “And, as an added bonus, the Briar Patch will offer students from the Middle School across the street an opportunity to gain good horticultural skills.” The Hope Association, which provides services for people with developmental disabilities, is using the old Briar Patch Greenhouse to start the growing season with hopes that the new unit will be ready in time for the May 13 grand opening.
The association told the story of the Briar Patch and its hopes for the future one in a recent news release:
The Briar Patch began in 2000, when the Hope Association Activity Center staff told the leadership about a successful local greenhouse business that was being sold for a reasonable price, and how it would be an ideal project for program participants.
The owners of the greenhouse, Lionel and Pauline Quirion, would help set it up and would help manage it for the first spring and summer, staff said. “It seemed like an awfully big project, but you couldn’t deny the enthusiasm that the staff were showing, and you couldn’t deny the potential that a project like this would have for the program participants.”
The first seed was planted.
The association’s Board of Directors and the Board of the Papillion Development Group toured the Lincoln Avenue greenhouse, “and before we knew it, we were arranging for the excavation work to begin at the armory location. The first seed was now watered.”
“The seed took root and sprouted. The greenhouse frame was erected and the polyethylene plastic cover went over the top, the furnace was installed and the water and electric were added to the greenhouse. The Briar Patch Greenhouse became a reality.”
As the greenhouse prepared for the first growing season, “what was amazing was how much the program participants were growing themselves through this process.”
“We always knew that they would be good workers, but what we didn’t realize was just how much they would love and learn from what they were doing. Individuals with significant disabilities were working incredibly hard. The direct support staff were developing ingenious tables and procedures to allow people with significant physical disabilities to be actively engaged in the work. The plants and the program participants grew.
“They both grew so much that we weren’t sure which grew more or faster — the plants or the program participants!
“We were amazed at how incredibly fast the seeds sprouted up and grew into fully grown pots of flowers that had to be trimmed back hard to help control the growth, and before too long, the Briar Patch was open for business and people from all over poured in.”
The association then had to branch out into an area of growth that it didn’t expect: customer service. “Soon, our program participants were helping customers to find the right flowers and vegetables, helping to load plants and products in their cars and even helping to run the cash register.”
That first year, the plants sold quickly. “But the success of the project was well rooted…As the summer sun came up, the heat in the greenhouse was unbearable and it was realized that the seasons would be limited to basically four months a year, but there was no doubt that the Briar Patch was a success.
“Defining success was based on the Briar Patch’s goal of helping people to stretch and grow, and it was defined by its ability to sustain itself as a small business. While the association didn’t make a ton of money from the greenhouse, it certainly was enough to keep it operational, and the success for the program participants was always the real objective. Over the years, many of the original program participants were able to stretch and grow with real transferable vocational skills that led to real competitive work opportunities out in the community. This meant that people with disabilities were leaving the Hope Association, but it really meant that the association was tremendously successful in helping people with disabilities to be contributing members of their community.”
That success has led to the new Briar Patch. The first one is a typical hoop-framed unit with a polyethylene plastic cover, built on a gravel base covered with a heavy fabric floor, only operational for about four months out of the year. “The current greenhouse unit is tired and in need of some pretty significant repairs.” The association finally decided it was time for some fundraising, and planning for a new Briar Patch, a plan that ripened to fruition this spring.
“This is all possible due to a staff that knew that it would work, worked hard to make it accessible to all of our program participants, worked hard to produce a wonderful product, and because of a community who has generously supported the Hope Association in this terrific project.”
PHOTO CAPTION 1: A Briar Patch worker takes in some of the joy of the growing season. The Hope Association’s greenhouse is starting the season in its old quarters on Lincoln Avenue in Rumford, but hopes its new greenhouse on Highland Terrace in Mexico will be ready for the May grand opening. (Contributed photo)
