Lindenwood will host a Community Garden Painting party on Oct. 14 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to allow students to play a role in the decoration of the newly established Community Garden.

Phoebe Mussman, a member of the Sustainability Task Force, said the event will be held this Friday and involves attendees to help paint various areas in the garden with designs submitted by students. 

“We will be painting onto the garden with the winning student designs from a student design contest we held,” Mussman said. “So basically, a bunch of students submitted their art designs on how they feel it would be best to paint the shed and the six garden troughs there, and we combed through them and decided what would be the best ones to implement. We will be painting those designs onto the garden and also just allowing it to be a time for people to get educated on what the garden is about.”

Mussman said that the design that will be implemented on Friday were originally two different designs from Lindenwood students’ designs but will be combined into one. In the near future, Mussman said that future painting events will have different student artists involved.

“Later in the year, we’re going to host another painting party that will be a little bit smaller event because we’ll be getting a new door for the shed,” Mussman said. “We’ll be painting that door with a few other student designs that didn’t get chosen for this specific painting day and the winning student artist will also be there to implement their designs, which will be cool for them.”

According to a flyer for Friday’s event, the deadline for students to submit their designs was Sept. 16, and the painting day will begin at 10 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. 

“It’s not a super complex event,” Mussman said. “I and the task force are excited to leverage the creativity and vision of students on our campus in a very concrete way. I think that’ll be really exciting for them and this upcoming event and future ones will help grow a sense of belonging and ownership in the garden because it’s not just the task force garden, it’s the entire Lindenwood campus community garden.”

Mussman said that the groundbreaking ceremony for the Garden happened earlier in 2022, and Friday’s event is to introduce the community garden as a welcoming and communal space for Lindenwood faculty, staff, and students.

“We, the Sustainability Task Force, are looking to host more community events here and really engage with the circles of people in Lindenwood and beyond and make sustainability something that is not just talked about on campus but is visible and welcoming, and exciting,” Mussman said.

Mussman said that the Sustainability Task Force plans to more events with the garden, including educational events on agriculture and farm-to-table operations, events with the Missouri Farm Bureau, partnerships with Lindenwood faculty and staff, and destressing garden events. 

Students can access more information on the garden by visiting the sustainability webpage.