FirstEnergy Green Team Volunteers Mend Fences and Fill Boxes for Jeanette Community Garden
FirstEnergy employee volunteers in western Pennsylvania recently celebrated Earth Day by preparing Jeanette’s community gardens for growing fresh crops of delicious and nutritious vegetables for residents of this underserved community in Westmoreland County.
The raised garden boxes are popular with elderly gardeners from nearby senior high rises and younger people who live in apartments without outdoor space to raise their own herbs and vegetables.
“I gotta tell you, I was a little fearful when I saw those two delivery trucks,” said Lucy Bittner, vice president of Jeanette Greenspaces, the nonprofit organization that for the past eight years has rented out garden plots for a nominal fee on the busy corner of South Seventh and Clay streets. “I told those drivers, ‘Wait a minute, we didn’t order all that dirt!’ They said you ordered 12 yards and here it is.”
A dozen volunteers, dubbed the “Green Team,” made quick work of the mountain of dirt, filling the 22 wooden boxes with fresh soil in about an hour to grow cherry tomatoes, beans, basil, kohlrabi, cabbage and more. Green Team members are FirstEnergy employees who volunteer their time and talents to support a wide variety of environmental initiatives, including tree plantings, pollinator gardening and park cleanups.
Watch a video of the Green Team at work on FirstEnergy’s YouTube channel.
Green Teamers also repaired the garden fence that prevents rabbits and similar critters from damaging the crops before harvest. The fence doesn’t always prevent people from wandering in and making unauthorized selections.
“If somebody sees something they want, let them pick it,” Lucy Bittner said. “With the price of food being what it is today, they’ll get something fresh and nutritious for their table.”
Glenn Labosco, a FirstEnergy Pennsylvania engineering manager in the West Penn Power service area, said he enjoys giving back to the community and is grateful that FirstEnergy offers employees paid volunteer time off.
“It’s important to give back to small organizations like this one that clearly need the help, and it’s very rewarding,” he said.
Tree Sapling Giveaways
As they spruced up the gardens, FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Green Team members also handed out 360 free white flowering dogwood saplings to passersby and shoppers at a discount store across the street. The only strings attached to accepting the trees were a promise to plant and water them.
“Do you gotta plant this outside?” a man asked, new tree in hand. “Will it grow in the house?”
FirstEnergy Forestry Specialist Travis Horn, who also lives in Jeanette, recommended planting the tree in a planter if no yard space is available.
Flowering dogwoods are a low-growing Pennsylvania-native species that do not interfere with the operation of overhead electric lines. The giveaway is part of FirstEnergy’s continued commitment to the environment and the communities served by its electric companies, including FirstEnergy Pennsylvania, which does business in the southwest part of the state as West Penn Power. FirstEnergy has planted more than 100,000 trees across its service territory since the start of the initiative. The company’s 2025 goal is to plant 25,000 more trees, with half earmarked for underserved communities such as Jeanette.
For more information about FirstEnergy’s environmental and corporate responsibility efforts to build a brighter and more sustainable future, visit www.fecorporateresponsibility.com.