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by Sondra Wilson. [email protected]. Originally posted 11/9/2022. Last updated 3/16/2024
This page is continued from the article, “Sondra Wilson sues Lockwood Café and Reliable Street, alleges defamation, discrimination, and fraud“
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From October 2021 through March 30, 2022, I performed approximately 20 hours of labor per week for approximately 5 months for the non-profit organization Reliable Street Inc.
Volunteer work I performed includes:
Volunteerism at Open Mics:
After attending a sparsely-populated open mic at Reliable Street (see photo used in flier), I asked the President if she would like me to make a flier and help advertise. She did, and on Oct. 13 I created this flier and then disseminated it throughout Ames, helping to attract many people to Reliable Street’s open mic events over the course of several months. The President also asked if anyone could come in a half hour early each Tuesday to help set up. I live close, love open mics, and am a performer, so I volunteered. From that point forward, I showed up early to nearly every open mic, and was asked by the President on more than one occasion to host or help host events when she was not able to attend. Over the course of these months, I was under the impression we had become friends, and never questioned otherwise.
Volunteerism in Gardening and Prairie Restoration:
As regular customer and plant enthusiast, I was asked by the President and Vice President of a non-profit organization called Reliable Street Inc. if I would help restore and help manage the community garden located on their property. The garden was being managed by the Ames High School gardening club, SHEPH (Students Helping to End Poverty and Hunger), however the students were less experienced and were not available to care for it as often as was needed.
The Vice President of Reliable Street, who was also Lockwood Cafe’s owner, offered me 50% off their amazing food in exchange for my work. Because I lived only a couple blocks away and love gardening, this arrangement worked out for everyone. I agreed to help manage and restore the garden.
Two Lockwood Café employees expressed interest in helping as well (henceforth “Employee #1” and “Employee #2”). Both employees attended a couple meetings with SHEPH and myself, and one of them volunteered in the garden a few times. After discussing the topic with SHEPH and some of Lockwood Cafe’s staff, I submitted a proposal replace the ~7′ high weeds surrounding the garden with native tallgrass prairie. Nissen, who I was told owned the property, approved the proposal on October 27, 2021.
A couple photos of the garden, and my proposal blueprints:
The area to the left, behind the tires, was the overgrown garden. The area to the right and behind the garden is where I proposed to replace weeds with native tallgrass prairie:
View from road on opposite side:
Blueprints I proposed:
Reliable Street’s President approved my proposal, and I immediately got to work. I performed approximately 20 hours of labor per week toward these ends, meeting with SHEPH members on multiple occasions so we could coordinate and come up with plans. I remember one student told me that she was really happy they had met me because they really didn’t have any adults that were excited about gardening and really helping them like I was. That meant so much to me. I really enjoyed this opportunity, and documented my work in hopes to build a portfolio and in the future be able to find work restoring prairie and gardening. I also helped to set up, occasionally MC, and close down open mics nearly every Tuesday alongside Reliable Street’s President.
Winter 2021 – 2022:
During the winter months, SHEPH members and I continued to coordinate online. They sent me a set of blueprints, and I sent them proposals to help improve their design. I asked what plants they would like to grow, and after they selected them, I spent weeks creating this gardening calendar, which includes step-by-step directions for growing each plant they were interested in.
Students used my calendar to plan their indoor sprouting, and we used it to plan dates for transplanting, preparing soil, and transplanting. Here are the blueprints SHEPH and I came up with.
Preparing for spring planting:
While students were in school, I spent February and March preparing the grounds for spring planting. After clearing the weeds and picking up trash around the property, I cleaned up and restored their compost area. Here is what it looked like beforehand:
Below is a photo from after I began cleaning up the compost area including clearing the weeds around it. I rotated the compost regularly so that it could begin to decompose. The compost was used by Lockwood Cafe’s staff to dump food waste at the end of the day, but it was not being properly maintained prior to my arrival. My dad donated a large compost bin to help process the food waste, but I don’t have any photos of it on the property:
I moved the tires that were strewn about in the first photo to be used as planters:
I laid 4″ x 4″s around the garden, and filled them in with wood chips to prevent weeds from taking over again:
On Oct. 31, 2021, an experienced gardener from Mustard Seed Community Farms taught me how to use a scythe, and helped me to clear away the weeds:
After weeds were cleared, including those which were growing in the garden and covering the fence (as shown in first photo):
After City of Ames Firefighters approved this part of my proposal, multiple community members helped me transport approximately 6 loads of wood chips to the property. Not only would the wood chips prevent weeds from moving into the garden and provide a nice walkway; they could be wetted prior to performing prairie burns. The entire project was being made to be fire safe, and every step of the process was approved by Reliable Street’s President:
In March 2022, a friend and I painted this sign to make the community garden more welcoming. Another community member donated the rain cache bin shown behind the garden, and a friend volunteered to help me transport it to the property:
Here is the final photo I took of my progress. I cleaned out this shed that was full of wet, rotting old clothes and trash, and turned it into a clean and tidy tool shed. The wheelbarrow could now be stored in here, rolled along the wood chip path, and used in the garden. This would all benefit SHEPH, Reliable Street, and any other community members who wanted to work in the garden:
Back to Article:
“Sondra Wilson sues Lockwood Café and Reliable Street, alleges defamation, discrimination, and fraud“
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