Ministry Spotlight: Garden and Grounds

This committee has been active for many years, continuing to make Sacred Heart’s campus look beautiful. We evolved into a “Grounds'' committee. We annually hold our “Mulch Day.” With the help of our Scouts, we distribute 30 cubic yards of mulch around our campus, trying to make it look presentable for our First Communion and Confirmation days. But over the last several years, we dealt with the Uptown Bank building offered to our church, and our new St. Damien Center which needed an immense amount of new plants and shrubs to surround it. Last year, we had a house in Rock Island donated to us, which meant this place needed a lot of attention in order to sell it - and we did! Many of our members stepped up with this project. This year, we removed 22 bushes along the southside of Culemans Hall. All of these projects took a lot of time and commitment from our volunteers at Sacred Heart.

Our committee meets a few times each year to trim our bushes and trees to keep the campus looking uniform. We still have several plots that require planting flowers and weeding/watering, for example the front entrance to the church building, our Jesus statue plot, and our courtyard flower beds. We also maintain the rose garden behind the church to keep it looking beautiful. We created a “Hosta Walk” between the church and the St. Damien Center, as well. Thanks to our “Hosta Ladies,” - they planted over 140 hostas for our parishioners to enjoy while looking out from our new building!

We filled several major chuck-holes in our parking lot as well as painting yellow stripes to caution parishioners of our many steps. Most recently, we removed the severely cracked cement sidewalk just west of the church and replaced it with more greenspace.

In closing, our members always step up and try to do what is needed. When I request assistance, our members respond. I say “members,” but they actually became my friends as well. Those are the blessings we receive from being involved. We meet so many very caring people in our church! I know I am blessed beyond my imagination.

Best wishes,

Cliff Zerull