Opportunity Village nurseries started at Oakey, expanded to Henderson

Patti Morello says it’s a treat to see the looks on the faces of those with special needs when they step into one of Opportunity Village’s community gardens.

“Their faces just light up,” said Morello, the creative-activities specialist for Opportunity Village, a nonprofit agency that serves Southern Nevadans who have intellectual disabilities. “It brings tears to my eyes sometimes.”

Opportunity Village has been working with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension since March to create the gardens at campuses.

“We have community gardens in all parts of the city,” said Elaine Fagin, the community gardens coordinator with the cooperative extension. “I think it’s great to have (community gardens) at Opportunity Village campuses. I think it does a lot of good for them.”

A garden was set up at the Ralph & Betty Engelstad Campus, 6050 S. Buffalo Drive in Las Vegas, and gardens recently were added at the Henderson-based Walters Family Campus, 451 E. Lake Mead Parkway, and the main campus, 6300 W. Oakey Blvd. in Las Vegas.

This is part of the mission to find creative programming for the OVIPs, the term the agency uses to describe people who come to Opportunity Village.

“We found out some of them have a passion for gardening,” she added.

Fagin said that when creating a garden, a variety of things must be considered, such as space for the garden and how much to grow.

“You have to determine how much you can realistically take care of,” she added.

When it came time to choose what to put in the gardens, master gardeners at the Cooperative Extension talked with Opportunity Village staffers about what items work best for Las Vegas.

Staffers then have visitors decide what they would like from the variety of vegetables available.

“We had a big poster board with the names of different vegetables they could plant,” Morello said. “So they got to participate in which ones we got to plant.”

Among the favorites were kale, beets, radishes and carrots; staffers are hoping to add to that, and potentially offer potatoes.

“Last week we planted garlic,” Morello added.

Visitors even made some of the wooden planter boxes that contain the garden.

Throughout the week, visitors come to the garden to help water and provide upkeep.

It has brought joy to the staff to watch some people who have more profound disabilities get involved, Morello said.

“They don’t really know what to expect,” she said. “You will them out to the garden; then all of a sudden they are touching dirt and soil. It’s exciting to watch them as they experience that.”

She added it has also been a bonding experience in which visitors help one another out.

“You have some of those who don’t have severe disabilities helping out those in wheelchairs,” she said. “It brings a sense of camaraderie.”

After they plant and harvest what they grow, Morello said, they get to learn about nutrition and, of course, eat the vegetables.

Morello said Opportunity Village wants to work more with the Cooperative Extension to have some of the visitors volunteer in its demonstration gardens.

Opportunity Village is looking to establish another garden at its North campus, at 4180 W. Craig Road in North Las Vegas.

To reach Henderson View reporter Michael Lyle, email mlyle@viewnews.com or call 702-387-5201. Find him on Twitter: @mjlyle.