A
SSOCIATED
N
EWSPAPERS OF
M
ICHIGAN
P
AGE
5
July 6, 2017
N
ORTHVILLE
- P
LYMOUTH
Kick Butt
Skateboarders learn lesson in values
Learning on a Sunday morning doesn't
have to take place in a church.
“We're very involvedwith all the youth,”
said Rob Parent, who with wife, Heidi,
owns downtown Plymouth Sun & Snow.
Streets nearby the shopwere filledSunday
morning, June 25, with young people on
skateboards and others picking up trash.
“It's to teach really good values,”
explained Parent of the Kick Butt event,
which took place for the fourth consecu-
tive year. “We want to set a good example.
The response has been amazing.”
As 9 a.m. came, teens, adults and chil-
dren gathered to get their marching
orders. Brothers Evan Vollick-Offer, 18,
and Owen Vollick-Offer, 16, both work at
Sun & Snow and were among the many
participants.
“It's a lot of fun,” said Owen, who's going
into his junior year at Canton High School
and lives in Plymouth. Evan, a sophomore
at theUniversity of Michigan in Ann Arbor,
noted their whole family participated the
first year and won third place for the most
trash collected.
The groupmet up latemorning at Lions
Park in Plymouth to have their trash
weighed for prizes. As they started,
Parent, who lives in Plymouth, and other
organizers emphasized safety and being
polite.
Parent noted skateboarders and long-
boarders sometimes get a bad reputation,
and theKickButt community service focus
helps to address that. One adult partici-
pant was asked if he was with a church
group, and he explained the Sun & Snow
sponsorship.
Parent said the kids “put their best foot
forward.” There were about 50 partici-
pants last year, and word of mouth helps
KickButt numbers grow.
“Now we have two kindergarten Girl
Scouts out there today,” said Parent as the
DJ music wafted down city streets. “It's
become a really cool family event.
“It can be fun,” Parent added. “It can be
a good time. And hopefully encourage
themto domore” community service.
Parent chuckled when asked if organiz-
ers ordered up the sunny skies that day.
“Yes, we absolutely did. We had to pay
extra for that,” he saidwith a grin.
One of the six expansive gardens on the
Country Garden Club of Northville tour
this year had somehumble beginnings.
A real estate agent dropped a packet of
Zinna seeds into the homeowner's mail-
box as a marketing tool many years ago
and things simply took off fromthere.
Now the homeowner, who eventually
worked as a Master Gardener on staff at a
local landscape company and taught gar-
dening classes at Schoolcraft College,
looks back on that first experience as the
beginning of her relationship with the
cycles of nature.
“I casually scattered the packet of
seeds in a forgotten side yard and went
about my life. To my delight, the neglected
seeds performed for me all summer. From
the window above my kitchen sink, I
watched them as they emerged from the
soil, reached for the sun, flowered with
abandon,” she said. When the autumn
frost came, the seeds fed the tiny
goldfinches who were fattening them-
selves up for thewinter, she added.
“Even though I grew up with cornfields
all around-it was the first time I really was
aware of the rhythm of the earth; I was
hooked,” she said.
Her current garden has beenunder her
careful ministrations since her family
moved toNorthville in 1990.
“I have been digging and planting and I
try to experiment with something new
every year so that I can really understand
the nature of the plant,” she said. Her gar-
den, she said, iswhere she finds great hap-
piness and a connection to something big-
ger.
Members of the Country Garden Club
of Northville selected her garden and five
others for the Annual Garden Walk
planned for 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. July 12.
This is the 40th anniversary of the club
with the Women's National Farm and
Garden Association. The selected gardens
surround private homes in both the city
and township of Northville and have been
chosen for their originality and design,
members said. The Garden Walk will
begin at Mill Race Village, 215 Griswold
St. a block fromdowntownNorthville. The
Village will feature a garden-themed mar-
ket with live music by Kurt Krahnke and
Rodney Rich as well as complimentary
home-made refreshments inside the Cady
Inn for all GardenWalk ticket holders.
Tickets for the walk are $12 if pur-
chased in advance online at cgcnv.org or
directly at Garden Views Garden Gallery,
127 E. Main St. in Northville. Tickets are
priced at $15 if purchased the day of the
walk.
Tickets pre-ordered through the web-
site can be retrieved at the ticket tent at
Mill RaceVillage the day of thewalk.
Walkers and strollers cannot be accom-
modated on the tour due to the terrain at
some gardens and safety concerns.
Proceeds from this major fundraising
event go toward supporting local and
national organizations that promote envi-
ronmental and horticultural causes and to
provide scholarships for local high school
seniors who plan to go into college science
careers.
Skateboarders, longboarders and others on wheels pick up trash from downtown
streets as part of the Kick Butt program sponsored by Sun & Snow.
I have been digging and planting and I try
to experiment with something new every year
so that I can really understand the nature of the plant.
”
Northville Garden Club Walk features 6 houses
