Mary H. Savage is the only person to be found in the sparsely decorated but functional office of the Homewood-Brushton Community Improvement Association. One gets the idea that perhaps she is the Homewood-Brushton Community Improvement Association, and not just because no one else is in the office. This graceful, retired library employee gives off enough energy to light a major city, or perhaps more accurately, beautify it. And it's contagious. Spend a few minutes with Mary, experience the warm glow from eyes that convey volumes about her love of life and neighbor, and you too may feel the unexplainable need to run out and pick up some trash or plant some azaleas.

For 22 years, Mary has had that kind of positive influence on her neighbors and on the Homewood area through her community gardens. These days, Mary has been told for health reasons she must limit her time in the sun, a warning light that for many would indicate it's time to hang up the gardening gloves. Instead, motorists and neighbors are likely to see Mary on her knees tilling the soil of some vacant urban lot at the break of dawn or in the early evening. Age may have forced a few changes in the rules, but the object of the game hasn't waivered since she began in the late 70s: beautify Homewood.

"I remember the first year we started this, the kids were complaining, saying things like 'Why are we doing this?' or 'I don't even live on this block.' Years later they have children of their own and they're working in the garden alongside them saying, 'You know I was one of the people who started this,'" Mary notes with a smile. She has seen not only the gardens blossom but also the hope and confidence of the young children who have tended them.

Lawanda Long began work in the gardens as a child and would always tell Mary, "I want to be just like you when I grow up." Today Lawanda is the community organizer for the Homewood Brushton Family Support Center, an outreach center funded by the YMCA. She has maintained a "mini-garden" in her yard every year since Mary first taught her how to plant, and today she volunteers in the Homewood gardens with her own daughter and with children from some of her outreach programs. Lawanda was excited that Mary is being recognized for her volunteer leadership. "Mary is just amazing. She's never stopped working to beautify the community," Lawanda notes. "I still look at her and think I want to have her energy when I grow up."

The ten Homewood gardens owe their roots to a trash dump Mary noticed when she worked as a community relations specialist for the Homewood branch of the Carnegie Public Library. "There was an unsightly lot across from the library that was filled with all variety of debris. I thought it would make a good project if we cleaned it up, so we jumped in and started. Some of the surrounding residents and young people who were hanging around pitched in and we got it done. That's when we got involved with Western Pennsylvania Conservancy with stipends for plants and equipment. Today, the community is very protective of these places and won't let people litter on what we have done because they respect the area."

Members of the community have come to associate Mary so much with the gardens that they regularly flag her down for horticultural tips. She ended up taking a course in master gardening just so she could answer their questions.

"When you're working in the garden, neighbors will go out of their way to stop and say thank you," Mary said. "Maybe they see the gardens and start to feel better about where they live and want to improve their own properties. And that could bring new businesses here. I think by all of us working to bring these empty lots to life every year, we could have a positive effect on bringing new life to the community."

If you'd like more information on our community garden program contact Nancy Terpack at 412-586-2388 or email: nterpack@paconserve.org.