HELENA, Mont.– Shodair Children’s Hospital has unveiled their newly renovated garden with a garden party for staff, educators, legislators, and local credit union sponsors. The garden is designed to be a peaceful place for children who have long stays at the hospital to relax, learn, and enjoy.
“The garden is a place to teach the children at Shodair how to grow fresh fruits and vegetables, and they also learn responsibility through helping to care for the garden” said Becca Dudek, coordinator at Shodair.
This year, they grew foods like strawberries, zucchini, cucumbers, and pumpkins, as well as sunflowers and other flowering plants. Patients come to the garden to take a moment away from their lives in the hospital, so providing a space where they can learn life skills like gardening and develop a passion and hobby was important for the staff at Shodair.
The garden wasn’t always the haven that it is now. It wasn’t until Montana’s Credit Unions stepped forward to sponsor the garden makeover, that the much-needed renovation became possible.
Brittney Dohr, Representative of one of the sponsoring credit unions, Horizon CU, was thrilled to be part of the project, saying, “It was awesome to see all of Montana’s Credit Unions come together cooperatively to raise funds for this well-deserved project. We were given a planter that was painted by Shodair’s students and the note written on mine was what the student had learned about growing tomatoes. I have it sitting on my desk at work as a beautiful reminder of all the wonderful things that credit unions do to help the communities they serve.”
Engraved stones from each of the sponsoring credit unions were placed in the garden in recognition of the partnership between Montana’s Credit Unions and Shodair Children’s Hospital, which is Montana’s sole Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.