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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, January 20, 2002

Love for sunshine and plants feeds dreams of abundance

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Down in a quiet gully in Olomana, gardenias grow with not a speck of black on the leaves, bunches of lettuce float like lilies on the water, and lives are shaped and nurtured in the sunlight, wind and mist.

For almost a year now, an unlikely partnership has grown around the love of horticulture and a belief in the restorative power of gardening. The Lani-Kailua Outdoor Circle, the Garden Club of Honolulu and the Department of Public Safety together have planted trees, put in landscaping, developed a hydroponic nursery and shared dreams of an abundant future.

The core of the partnership is the environmental sciences vocational training program at the Women's Community Correctional Center. In civilian terms, that's the gardening class at the women's prison.

But while the focus is on job training for the female offenders, it's hard to say just who are the beneficiaries of the program. The inmates can earn a certificate of completion from Leeward Community College. Their work has beautified and restored many areas in the prison, and they've also taken over the clean-up and landscape maintenance of Alala Point by Kailua beach, a service to Kailua residents.

Horticulture instructor Juan Arcena is one of those quiet types who laughs off the heaps of compliments from WCCC staff, the community volunteers and his WCCC students. He does like showing off the perfect plants, the thriving nursery, and the immaculate tool room, but when asked if he sees growth in the inmates as they learn in the garden and work in the community, he quietly says, "Oh yes. And it touches me." He makes it sound like he's getting the best end of the deal.

At the same time, the volunteers who have jumped in to support the program say it's joyful work, and they get much more than they give.

"It's the most rewarding thing I've ever done," says Carol Ann Ellett of the Outdoor Circle.

Her group, along with the Garden Club, has gathered donations of trees, plants, soil and fertilizer to support the program at WCCC. They've applied for grants to restore a long-abandoned classroom at the correctional center, brought in guest instructors to teach flower arranging, even secured a donation of 16 tons of gravel from Ameron to line the walkways between the nursery beds. And as they go about their work, they refer to the WCCC residents as "women," not inmates, not prisoners.

Not long ago, one of the Garden Club members read about a movie that told a very similar story. "Greenfingers" is a comedy based on true events in England, where, for the last 10 years, male offenders in a gardening vocational class have won gold medals at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show. Struck by the parallels, the volunteers arranged for a special showing of the film here in Honolulu with proceeds going to support the WCCC program.

"Greenfingers" will be shown at the Honolulu Academy of Arts Theatre at 4 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 27. For reservations, call 263-8555.

The theme of the movie fits neatly with the ideals of the Garden Club, the hope of the Outdoor Circle and the motto scrawled across the horticulture classroom at WCCC:

"We're planting for a better future."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.