August 25, 2004
Children's Garden honors Helen Milliken
Boys and Girls Club presents stepping stone , garden walkway to include a brick in recognition of devoted gardener
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Before there was a Children's Garden, there was Helen Milliken.
A long-time member of the Friendly Garden Club and devoted gardener, Milliken began connecting children with gardening in the 1950s. She hosted and taught a series of classes on gardening, which were held at her house for years.
Recognizing Milliken as a major force for gardening in the area, members of the Grand Traverse Area Children's Garden recognized her accomplishments Thursday evening at a celebration in her honor. Held at the garden, the event drew more than 50 attendees.
"If that avenue of junior gardening hadn't been there, this garden wouldn't be here today," said Susan Kuschell, past president of the Friendly Garden Club and director of the Children's Garden. "I have never met an individual quite like her, she is graceful, she is kind and she is always there to do something for somebody else."
Situated behind the Traverse Area District Library, the Grand Traverse Area Children's Garden opened in 1999 to help teach and excite area children about gardening.
The garden is divided into numerous plots and has winding walkways that invite exploration. The Children's Garden also features a wheelchair accessible Enabling Garden that includes adapted planting stations and flower beds, each with an irrigation facility, plus special gardening tools.
Each year, area groups and organizations adopt a plot and put in a range of vegetables, flowers and decorations. This year's garden featured plots planted and cared for by groups such as Michael's Place, the Women's Resource, the Boys and Girls Club, Brownie and Girl Scout troops and Munson's Art Therapy Group.
Children from many of these groups attended the ceremony for Milliken, munching ice cream and cake while checking out other gardens. All the children who worked on the gardens this summer received Garden Keeper medals for their efforts. Milliken bestowed the medals on those who were present.
Angela Kushner, a troop leader for Brownie Troops 32 and 40, brought four of her girls to the celebration. Throughout the spring and summer, six girls participated in planting and caring for their plot at the Children's Garden.
"They really did a good job, they did a lot of flowers and had fun coming out and pulling the weeds," she said.
During the ceremony, children from the Boys and Girls Club presented Milliken with a stepping stone they made for her. Kuschell also gave Milliken a brick that will be installed in the garden's walkway in her honor.
"This is a first in my life, I've never been on a brick before," Milliken noted.
Milliken said that living in such a beautiful area is inspiring and she acknowledged members of the Children's Garden for promoting additional beauty across generations.
"It is just a tremendous thing they have going here, every year it has more features and brings in more kids," she said. "You know it really doesn't matter what age, gardening is therapy, it really is renewal."
Milliken began gardening as a girl when her parents gave her own small plot next to their house. That experience sparked a lifelong love and while she grows mostly flowers these days, she still has to have some tomatoes.
"Just to plant your own seeds and seeing them come up and start something," she recalled of that first garden's magic. "Once you start, gardening is just something you have to do."