Scouts, Master Gardeners, Community Volunteers Come Together on Patriot Place Landscaping Project
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Volunteers are landscaping Patriot Place, a project of Flagler Health+ and St. Johns Housing Partnership (SJHP) that will benefit homeless veterans in our community.
Volunteers and donors from St. Augustine Boy Scout Troop #234, the UF/IFAS Extension St. Johns County Master Gardener Program, the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors (NEFAR) Charitable Foundation, and Care Connect+ gathered on 79 Masters Dr. in St. Augustine the past several Saturdays.
Troop #234’s Michael Korfhage took on the landscaping as an Eagle Scout project.
The Florida Master Gardener Volunteer Program is a citizen-driven program that benefits UF/IFAS Extension and the residents of Florida. The program relies on dedicated volunteers who have an interest in gardening and in giving back to their communities.
“The Master Gardener program spearheaded and supervised the planting. Their expertise in design and knowledge has been invaluable to creating a Florida Friendly landscape,” noted SJHP Executive Director Bill Lazar.
The NEFAR Charitable Foundation donated funds to buy plants and shrubbery as well as interior paint. The foundation is a 501C3 corporation which was established to raise funds and assets to assist members of the public and member Realtors® in times of need.
Parents from Troop #234 also pitched in to help. As did volunteers from Care Connect+, established by Flagler Health+ to link area residents in need with available services and address social determinants of health in a coordinated way throughout Northeast Florida. By aligning community resources into a single access point, Care Connect+ increases coordination and access of available resources.
When it opens this summer, Patriot Place will be a six-unit complex for at-risk veterans who already live in St. Johns County. Each of the one-bedroom apartments will be 630-square feet.
Patriot Place will be certified “Florida Green” by the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC). Founded in 2000, FGBC is the state’s leading certifier of green projects. There is still work to be done. You can help make Patriot Place special for at-risk and homeless Veterans. For more information contact the St. Johns Housing Partnership at info@sjhp.org or call (904) 824-0902
