35 band members and staff from William Penn High School in York, PA spent Friday afternoon, April 15th, cleaning up the Greek, Hebrew and Italian Cultural Gardens thanks to their initiative in seeking out volunteer opportunities in places where they visit, and thanks, too, to Business Volunteers Unlimited, Cleveland, OH for providing the site and service that links volunteers to community service opportunities in the Northern Ohio area.  The Penn group probably holds the record for the most trash and plant matter cleaned up in two hours, so far:  about 1700 cubic feet.  Impressive!  And much appreciated.  Makes a world of a difference in the Gardens for the many sightseers and nearby residents alike who are in the Gardens every day.  See the photo of  ten of the students who worked in the Hebrew Cultural Garden, below.

Band members-Wm Penn High, York PA clean-up Hebrew Cultural Garden

• Annual Brunch and Bloom volunteer event attracted over 100 people in mid-June to plant annuals and some perennials as well as generally clean-up the Garden.
• Worked with various volunteer groups during the season to clean-up more than Brunch and Bloom was able to accomplish
• Replaced broken, original sandstone pavers in two sections:  1) Between East Blvd sidewalk and stairs entering core of Garden; 2) from foot of the East Blvd entrance stairs to the center of the core Garden area.  Used extra thick concrete to withstand large utility trucks, tinted to match existing sandstone, and cut to resemble the original sandstone slabs.  Areas were also raised above adjacent soil to prevent soil creep onto the walk areas.  Used broken sandstone to replace some missing pavers.  Will be distributing more of the broken sandstone in the Garden during 2011.
• Began the process of replacing seven (7) of the 27 total bronze plaques that are missing.  The seven being replaced are the largest and are in the most prominent areas of the Garden.  Installation of the seven replacement plaques expected in June, 2011.

The May 12, 2010 installation of the inaugural class into the Cleveland International Hall of Fame featured four people who have been intimated associated with the Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation over the years.  That is four out of thirteen inductees.  The Federation celebrates their inductions and all of their work on the Federation’s behalf as well as that of the general  community’s.  Their biographies follow:

Helen B. Karpinski Hall of Fame Biography

Lonnie Davis McCauley's Cleveland International Hall of Fame biography

Alex Machaskee's Cleveland International Hall of Fame biography

Leo Weidenthal's Cleveland International Hall of Fame biography

2009 was marked by events both new and continuing in the Hebrew Cultural Garden.  Here are some of the highlights:

“Brunch and Bloom” attracted over 100 people again this year on another very pleasant day, weather-wise.  Almost 1000 plants went into the Garden is a few hours.  Publicity for the event worked very well in spite of the budget belt tightening needed given the dramatic decrease in funds available to the community as a whole and the Garden in particular.  And this year was marked by the smoothest running one we’ve ever had thanks to Jewish Volunteers in Action and the Hebrew Cultural Garden committee members who do a outstanding job in carrying the event off so well.

Volunteers applied fertilizer, herbicides and grass seed in two springtime applications to eliminate the usual and extensive invasion of weeds, were it not done, and the turf was preserved.  The fountain pool’s floor was painted, as usual, to hide the peeling paint from the previous year.  Fountain bubbler was removed, but not taken, maliciously only once this year so that a replacement was not needed.  The new trash receptacles, that the City of Cleveland kindly supplied at our request, has been working very well and the need to remove trash has markedly decreased.  The receptacles were painted and marked.

Thanks to Holden Parks Trust’s funding six (6) trees were trimmed of dead wood.  With an extensive forest canopy around the Garden it is always a challenge to keep up with the dead wood coming out of the trees. HPT’s help in mitigating it for the truly large dead limbs is very important.

New this year was a clean-up event on July 15th that was organized by the Cleveland Hillel Foundation’s Summer Internship Program and consisted of volunteers from Hillel, Summer on the Cuyahoga, Key Bank’s internship program, Center for Civic Engagement Learning (CWRU) and City Year-Cleveland.  They did a remarkable job in cleaning up areas of the Garden that have not been for decades.

Also new this year was Case Western Reserve University’s 7th Annual Case for Community Day were 18 student and staff volunteers helped us weed and further clean-up the Garden.  There is always more than enough work to do.

Both before and after all of these events, we cannot say enough about the City of Cleveland’s Parks Department and how they help us remove, literally, truckloads of plant matter, along with other trash.  They do it speedily and work closely with us in everything we do.  They are terrific.  Not to mention that that supply the Garden’s water, electricity and lighting at no charge, AND regularly cut the grass and clean up leaves and other plant materials.  Great to be their partner in this City-owned park.

The Better Garden Club funded a new, granite bench and it was dedicated in June.

The Garden now has a photo and listing on “Google Maps” for convenient way-finding.

The Maltz Museum’s October show featuring the Cultural Gardens had a section of the displays on the Hebrew Cultural Garden.  Donna Yanowitz, chair, loaned objects for use in that show.

Dr. Mark Tebeau and Erin Bell, Cleveland State University, and the proud parents of this site, introduced a new Cultural Gardens blog this year, which increased the number of visitors to the www.culturalgardens.org site as well as the Hebrew Cultural Garden page on that site, which is very much appreciated.

Lolly the Trolley’s daily tours of the Cultural Gardens stop at the Hebrew Cultural Garden among others.  And various tours of Jewish Cleveland make the Garden an important stop in their itinerary.

The Jewish Community Federation continues their irreplaceable support of the Garden with both manpower and money.

We are very much indebted to them for their ongoing support.

And we continue to work toward the funding of the restoration of the Hebrew Cultural Garden, with the replacement of the critical missing plaques from the Garden on the top of our list of things to do, soon.

Apologies to anyone and any organization that I’ve missed in this report.  It was not intentional in the least.

Bill Jones for the Hebrew Cultural Garden committee

Article on Brunch and Bloom; Cleveland Jewish News 6-26-09

Family at Brunch and Bloom

Summer interns clean Hebrew Cultural Garden 7-15-09