Keep Phoenix Beautiful, in partnership with the City of Phoenix, 911Day.org and Cities of Service, conducted a 9/11 Day of Service event to honor the brave heroes of that day and to launch Keep Phoenix Beautiful’s Community Garden.

As a federally-recognized national day of remembrance, a host of community service opportunities have been made available to volunteers across the country. Keep Phoenix Beautiful’s 9/11 Day of Service event, which featured remarks from Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski and Keep Phoenix Beautiful President and CEO Tom Waldeck, focused on the launch of the community garden at its new location, 18th Avenue and Pierson Street in Phoenix.

Keep Phoenix Beautiful received a $25,000 Keep America Beautiful/Lowe’s Community Partners Grant to transform the community garden into a vibrant garden and education space with composting, demonstration gardens, a solar greenhouse built by ASU students, and much more. Lowe’s Heroes from Phoenix stores as well as across Arizona came to the garden to install a fence around the site, while community volunteers mulched and planted.

PHX Renews, the former garden, had been a valued project in the community since its beginning in 2011 with significant support from Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton. Re-opened today at its new location, the garden transformed a 15-acre vacant lot into a sustainable oasis with numerous community partners and hundreds of volunteers who created a vibrant, green space for people to gather.

The new location of the Keep Phoenix Beautiful Community Garden will continue these efforts, and offer new features to residents such as a greenhouse, aquaponics station, recycle and composting station, children’s area, outdoor classroom section, and more. The campaign will be raising funds for these new stations and amenities, as well as gardening tools and needed supplies. The new garden will provide local residents the opportunity to receive hands-on education about urban agriculture and sustainability.

Read more about the 9/11 Day of Service here, here and here. And check out this video produced by the City of Phoenix!