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Established: 2022
Located: Independence Valley, WA
In the media
How a military career led this Seattle-area nurse to farming
Kayla McCarthy is trying to leave her home base better than she found it by creating community in a garden.
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Every day after her shift as an Army nurse, Kayla McCarthy retreats to her happy place: a half-acre field in the shadow of the horse stables and an RV storage park on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
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“After encountering the garden last year, I couldn't stop thinking, this could be such a better place if we could just get people excited about coming out and gardening. It's really been therapeutic for me,” she says, her muck boots squelching near her beds of chard, cabbage and sunflowers, ahead of attending a garden work party and the location’s first-ever gardening tutorial that morning.
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McCarthy is trying to make that practice more accessible to her community on base, and she’s doing it with support from JBLM staff and military veterans drawn to nurturing themselves and others by nurturing the earth.
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Military lives are nomadic, so McCarthy has been looking for ways to keep the gardens going when she leaves. She has connected with Anderson’s team, Master Gardeners and, recently, with the Association of the U.S. Army, which is interested in leveraging the garden for educational and mentorship purposes, so people can get into gardening more easily.
JBLM honors volunteers in appreciation ceremony
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 36th Annual Volunteer Recognition Ceremony brought out some old and new faces. Volunteers with over 20 years of service to those with under one year of service, came together to celebrate with each other.
“Volunteers help to build a healthy community through their service,” said Lori Parker, installation volunteer corps program manager with the Directorate of Personnel and Family Readiness. “The impact from a volunteer can be long lasting and truly inspiring.” In total, volunteers worked more than 50,000 hours during the pandemic. These efforts saved JBLM almost $1.5 million in budget costs.
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Nominations for volunteer awards could come from anyone on base, but there are a few must-haves. Nominators are asked to provide details on all aspects of volunteer’s involvement in the unit, organizations and community. Additionally, the nomination must outline the volunteer’s accomplishments and how they have impacted their volunteer organizations and the community.
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Volunteers are the backbone of our community, and we certainly hope to increase the importance of this effort next year. 2nd Lt. Kayla McCarthy is awarded as a volunteer of merit