The Little Barn That Could--Poppa's Recycled Gardens, Closes Today

Poppa Inc's fundraiser Recycled Gardens closed today. Volunteer burn out is the main cause. Keni, Poppa's president, spent upwards of 80 hours per week running RG, in its hayday. RG was well loved by plant lovers and animal lovers alike.

I love Recycled Gardens. When I could afford the gas money and when my car was actually running, I used to go up once or twice a month to mow the lawns at RG. Keni and I would go off to McMinnamins at Rock Creek, filthy from weeding and labor, for a beer drenched lunch.

I have the utmost respect for the volunteers that come out one or two days every single week to weed, pot, and sell plants to make money for spay/neuter. Steve and Diana, I'm talking about you. I wonder what they will do now.

I called it the little barn that could. That barn made such a difference for me. The money made there gave me something purposeful and useful to do with my life, allowed me to do something I was good at doing, the only thing I knew/know how to do.

Recyled Gardens made a huge difference to the cats and their caretakers in the mid valley. I can't tell you how many tens of thousands of dollars Poppa poured into the mid valley to fix cats here--money made by the hard work of volunteers.

Recycled Gardens began with a simple concept. Volunteers would collect unwanted plants, even dig them up at sites slated for development, repot and care for them, then sell them at Recycled Gardens to make money to prevent unwanted pets. A circle.

Keni, the director, had to quit running the nursery due to personal issues over a year ago. RG was going to close a year ago, but there was outcry over it. So, a plan was worked out so a woman was paid a salary to run it. But, that really didn't work out at all. The nursery fell into the red. The board, three long time dedicated wonderful volunteers, voted to close it. Today was the final sale day.

What will become of my Poppa funding now? I don't know. For now, they have some savings to carry on. But, we will need to find other ways to raise funds and write grants or my cat fixing days will be over. For a couple years, I spent over $20K of Poppa's money a year, fixing mid valley cats. And yet there are still thousands of unfixed cats in the mid valley needing fixed.

Why is Poppa's approach better than the FCCO's? For one thing, I use the money at private vet clinics, making it far easier than using the three or four FCCO clinics per year in this area.

For another thing, I take in more house cats to be fixed than ferals, using Poppa money. This is of prime importance. Fixing ferals is after the fact, after cats have been abandoned or dumped by their owners unfixed and begun feral colonies. Fixing house cats prevents feral colonies from beginning in the first place so it is highly effective, when paired with fixing existing feral colonies, too. The FCCO only fixes ferals.

The amount of money I used from Poppa yearly, at the time I got the highest allowance, although it was always paid directly to a vet, not to me, I still spent far less than any salaried shelter worker draws in pay each year.

Think about that. Think about the "what if", if far more money were donated and spent on spay/neuter than to pay just the salaries and overhead at shelters. Then change would happen.

I remember a few years ago, a volunteer party, public welcome. Keni's husband has a rock band. He's so shy but man can he and his friends ever beat out the rock. About 6 or 8 of us women, half drunk, up in the gravel below the steps into the barn. The band was on the porch of the barn, blasting rock. All of us women, old and young, but mostly middle aged and over, dancing wildly beneath the stars in the warm night air. We couldn't get any of the men to join us. They'd watch, leaning against the railings, but we couldn't get them to join in the dancing. What a time that was. And boy was I sore the next day.

Goodbye Recycled Gardens. What a wonderful nursery it was.