Buffalo Rising Online

Aug 22nd, 11:47am By STEEL

I had never heard of the Community Action Information Center (CAIC) (or perhaps I should say "never paid attention to") until I stumbled upon Rosa's Garden of Love at Wohlers and Northampton Streets on the East Side. I was tooling around this part of the city for another story that I wanted to write. As always happens on the East Side, I look for one story and find three more. After driving through block after block of sad devastation, a large lush garden seemed to drop form the sky. We immediately parked and walked into the garden, which had been created from several contiguous vacant lots. Down the street, on the next corner, was evidence of another garden. I knew there had to be a back-story behind this place. Finding out more was not a difficult task since several people were working in the garden - they quickly pointed me to Rosa Gibson standing on the porch of the Community Action Information Center across the street.

Rosa is the dynamo behind both the garden and the CAIC (see more on Rosa). She has been a community activist in this corner of Buffalo for many years and was responsible for organizing the city's First National Night Out back in the eighties. Through the CAIC, Rosa and her volunteers run several charity and community organizing activities including a food pantry, and a crime watch program – they also provide community service work to convicted offenders sent by the court in lieu of jail time. One of the men we talked to had been ‘sentenced’ to Rosa's care and stayed on as a volunteer after his ‘sentence’ was compete.

Rosa began her garden by cleaning up the vacant lots, getting rid of the weeds, and bringing color to the neighborhood with flowers. She fought off the gangs and the just plain disrespectful souls who looked to damage the results of her efforts. She has even prevailed against the dead weight of City Hall bureaucracy. She gave us a tour of the garden explaining how she needed to make a difference in her very troubled neighborhood. In the distance was the poignant sound of another house being demolished. First stop on the tour was a small tree orchard. She planted the orchard after realizing that children in the neighborhood did not know where fruit trees came from. Today they can pick that fruit and tend those trees. Neighborhood people are invited to tend their own vegetable garden plots, some of which are extremely lush. Perhaps the most interesting element she showed us was the Shoe Garden. Throughout a large area of the garden (and even extending across the street) are hundreds of shoes lined up in rows, borders, and circles. From each shoe sprouts plants of all kinds. She notes that the shoes represent people coming together to do good. How much could Buffalo accomplish with just one Rosa Gibson on each street? What a city that would be.

You can meet Rosa and see her garden. The Community Action Information Center is holding an open house August 29th from 3pm to 7pm. You need to RSVP by today August 21 by calling 716-885-5925. The invitation says "Please join us for an evening of fun, food, and fellowship. Share your favorite recipe, bring a dish to pass around."

The community Action Information Center can be found at: 103 Wohlers Street Buffalo, New York 14208