Paul’s Garden
Summer is in full bloom at St. Vincent de Paul, and our clients have had the privilege of enjoying a beautiful new garden created by our very own Paul Carmony.
Anyone who has spent time at St. Vincent de Paul will surely know Paul. He has been a dedicated volunteer in our community for more than 18 years. This summer he took it upon himself to clean out and landscape the previously overgrown area behind Simon Hall on our campus. Paul was inspired to take on this task because he
noticed that many of the men who live in Simon Hall come-out back to smoke, he said. He hoped that by landscaping the garden he could make the garden a quiet contemplative place to spend time.
The love and care taken with garden is obvious. Filled with wildflowers, shrubs, and enormous sunflowers, it is the perfect place to rest or chat with a friend. He hopes to have local artists come in at some point in the future to paint a mural on the fence, to give the illusion of escape.
Paul began volunteering at St. Vincent de Paul in back in 1998 after he retired from Humana. “I had all this free time, and I didn’t want to look back one day and feel like I had wasted the time that God had given me,” Paul said.
He certainly has not wasted any time. Paul says he doesn’t have any plans for more landscaping projects, but he is busy as always organizing donations for the clothes closet, making hygiene kits for the community, and planning for our annual Santa Shop in December.
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