I love when a small seed germinates and the result is something that makes you wonder how you ever lived without it. Some of these seeds have been planted by: Keep Kenosha Beautiful, the Sunny Squads, Green Street, Green Kenosha Lakeshore, the Lemon Street Gallery, and the Kenosha Lakeshore Business Improvement District (BID).

Sitting outside of Common Grounds on a warm day after a bike ride a friend explained to a tourist who had approached us, that Kenosha is a “resort town.” In an instant I felt my entire attitude about Kenosha shift from old factory town to resort town. I liked it. I didn’t have far to look to confirm this idea, as immediately around me was the harbor and the lake; the incredible hanging baskets cascading all the way down Seventh Avenue; and across the street the tropical creations that make Villa D’Carlo look like the Riviera. And how did all this start? A seed.

In the hopes of inspiring more people to plant a seed and see it grow I am going to relate a few stories as I have heard them in the two years that I have lived here.

One of the things that makes my heart soar in the summer is the generous display of flowers downtown. I am told that in an attempt to beautify the deteriorating business section the BID Board put up plastic flowers. Maria Caravati of Equinox, gardener extraordinaire and a new member to the board, insisted on removing the dust catchers, and with the help of Burr Oaks this amazing display of color and living flowers now graces and revives our downtown district. All summer long they take my breath away, and if fall weren’t so lovely it would be difficult to see them come down at the end of the season.

Keep Kenosha Beautiful started over 15 years ago with a single garden near Columbus Park and now Catherine Mantuano of the Parks Department coordinates the plantings and the volunteers for more than 50 gardens in Kenosha. Over cappuccinos at Andrea’s, Catherine is a fountain of knowledge about the history of the program, it’s present condition and future plans. Fifty barren spots, where trash can accumulate and trouble can brew, are now learning centers for gardeners and children all over the city; and they make people honk and smile as they drive by.

As important as the plantings are and also keeping up with the watering and fertilizing, the removal of trash and recycling programs are also a big part of the program. She said with a smile: “Kids love cleaning.” which comes from her experience with school kids in clean up and recycling. “They may not like to clean up at home, but they love our programs at the parks. Sometimes the adult volunteers are exhausted and can’t get the kids to stop. When you teach them about how toxic cigarette butts are when they go from the street runoff into the lake, you can’t stop them from picking them up and counting each one.”

And KKB has a partner in Sunny Stevenson who created Sunny Squads at age 6! Wanting to change the world, Sunny cleaned up her neighborhood park and saw that the problem was bigger than her. She has since helped to organize her Girl Scout Troop and school friends, designed clean up bags, and her squads are seen at community parks and city events cleaning up trash.

Catherine has more than 125 volunteers who are maintaining the 50 gardens that bloom each summer. Many of the gardens are rain gardens that collect runoff to percolate the excess water through the soil. Another way to cut down on water usage is the use of native plants, and perennials reduce yearly planting expense. The Lemon Street Gallery has “adopted” Union Park and has brought together artists and neighbors to give five dull cement planters that the city donated, a large handle and cover them decoratively with bits of tile and mirror, marbles, and stone, transforming them into large, fanciful tea cups.

I was told by Tom Clark, from Lemon Street Gallery, that one pregnant neighbor was still working on Thursday after passing her due date on Monday. She was having so much fun while waiting for the baby they couldn’t drag her away. The Kenosha Union Park Project (KUPP) now has “Kupp and Kringle” at 10:00 am the second Saturday of the month and neighbors are encouraged to bring their favorite coffee cup for free coffee and Kringle.

A handful of people who call themselves Green Street Kenosha just last spring passed the hat and personally bought and paid for portable recycling bins and set them up at Blooming Days, Taste of Wisconsin and KUSD’s “Back to School” event and collected more than 6,500 gallons of recyclables. At the same time about 10 neighbors calling themselves Green Kenosha Lakeshore organized their Allendale neighborhood to have individual yard sales on June 20th and at the end of the day removed and donated four U-Haul trucks packed to the top with furniture, clothing, and toys to St. Vincent de Paul and the Salvation Army. At the same event they collected and recycled over 12,000 pounds of electronic equipment and 85 pounds of home batteries. This impacts all of us as the fee for recycling the electronics was $0 and to send trucks to “tip” at the landfill is about $80 each time, and you don’t want this waste in the landfill.

Before I finish, we all look forward to the grand opening of 75th Street in a couple weeks. I am told by Ron Bursek, Kenosha’s Director of Public Works, that all the concrete taken out of the old 75th Street was ground up and reused to create the new 75th Street and the city will be installing LED street lamps to save us money. Good job, Ron! Keep it beautiful.

Send comments to myturn@kenoshanews.com.