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Victoria Cornwell is in charge of development and communications for the Greater Detroit Agency for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which recently began plans for a new sensory garden for patrons.New garden will stimulate the senses of touch, smell
A $5,000 grant to an agency for the visually impaired will fund the sensory landscaping.
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DETROIT -- A small grant has helped plant the beginnings of a garden that will allow blind children to challenge their senses of touch and smell at the Greater Detroit Agency for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
The nonprofit agency recently received about $5,000 from the Grandmont Rosedale Development Corp. for facade improvements in an effort to clean up the business district in northwest Detroit. But in sprucing up the office exterior, officials, with the help of Greening of Detroit, decided to lay the foundation of a new sensory garden.
"It's divided into touch and scent. You have the pussywillow and roses. An artist has suggested maybe a yellow brick road," said Victoria Cornwell, who is in charge of development and communications.
Although the garden will not likely be finished until next year, the agency's two-story brick building on Grand River is already showing a vast improvement after the removal of overgrowth.
New shrubs, white shutters and more safety features such as new fences and a vestibule were installed as a result of the grant. The money also allowed other long-needed changes, such as a paved parking lot and a new sign.
"We were able to invest in our building, thereby investing in the city, which is a win-win for everybody," said Gail McEntee, the agency's executive director. The front of the building now features crabapple, daylily, arborvitae and burning bush.
In the spring, the agency changed its name from Upshaw Institute for the Blind to include the seven southeast Michigan counties it serves.
Since 1961, the organization has been helping children and adults with eye diseases and vision problems cope with daily tasks.
Although most of the trainers and social workers go out into the community to help adults maintain independent lives, the agency began a summer program last year geared toward elementary and middle school children.
"What happens is kids with impediments, they're not instilled with this can-do attitude, that feeling they can accomplish whatever they want like normal kids," McEntee said.
Children between 5 and 15 are picked up at home and taken to the agency Monday through Friday for two weeks of educational activities.
The children learn how to make a bed, clean up after themselves and even cook.
"A lot of parents with blind children don't always let loose, so they don't always learn living skills," Cornwell said.
Space in the summer program is limited because of the size of the agency's office, but the agency plans to host a back-to-school carnival for children with visual impairments and their families Sept. 17.
McEntee said the agency hopes to finish the sensory garden next year and follow through with a landscaper's vision of lavender, wooly thyme and primrose in one plot and catmint, oriental lily and dwarf lilac in another area.
The Greening of Detroit already has planted red twig dogwood and winterberry as part of the garden's foundation.
The children participating in the summer program this year are already gearing up for the garden.
Recently, one group painted pots and planted herbs.
You can reach Judy Lin at (313) 222-2072 or jlin@detnews.com.
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