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Bringing Gardens To Children

Claudia Cannon, 62, has always had two passions: her family and gardening. With her children now grown, she has been able to turn her love for the soil into a new career: gardening guru.

Born in North Carolina and married at 18, Ms. Cannon spent most of her life as a stay-at-home mom, raising five children, including an adopted son with spina bifida, a congenital defect of the spinal column. In 2000, that son passed away. Suddenly, at age 54, having recently separated from her husband and with her other four children living on their own, Ms. Cannon had a lot of time on her hands.

"Being a mother had been my life's work, and I am grateful to have had the chance to stay home to raise five great kids," says Ms. Cannon, who has lived in several states, as well as overseas. "But when Jonathan died, I was driven to give back to society."

Ms. Cannon threw herself into public service with the same fervor she brought to parenting. (Jonathan had required up to 14 hours of special treatments per day.) In Fort Myers, Fla., she earned a paralegal degree from Edison State College. (Though she attended several colleges and loves studying, Ms. Cannon had never completed a degree because of her frequent moves.) She then began work as a volunteer with a program that trained community members to serve as advocates for children in foster-care court cases.

But it wasn't until a subsequent move to Sarasota in 2004, to be closer to her surviving son and his family, that Ms. Cannon found her new calling: serving as a master gardener. Master gardeners are specially trained horticulturalists who volunteer their time to, among other things, help families and children learn to plant gardens, educate the community about environmental programs and pest management, and work with schools to establish gardening programs.

"I have always loved gardening, and when I found out about the master gardener program, I decided that was the best way I could contribute to my community," says Ms. Cannon, who became certified as a master gardener after taking a course offered by the University of Florida extension program in Sarasota. She volunteered more than 1,300 hours in the Sarasota County Master Gardener program last year.

Ms. Cannon's main project has been working with Cyesis, a public school in Sarasota for pregnant teens and young parents, where children are cared for on-site by certified caregivers. Ms. Cannon helped create and leads a gardening program at the school, with the aim of bringing young parents and their children together in a natural setting.

"I wanted to give these young parents a place to bond with their kids, teach them about science and horticulture in a hands-on way, and instill healthy eating habits for a lifetime," says Ms. Cannon of her goals for the program, which has become a big success among the students and their families. The Cyesis campus is closing next year, and the program will be integrated into a regular high school, but Ms. Cannon hopes she'll be able to continue the gardening program in the new locale.

Aside from her work with Cyesis, Ms. Cannon educates teachers about how to start gardening programs at their schools, works with a local food bank to teach nutrition to low-income families, volunteers at Planned Parenthood, and is helping several preschools put gardens in place.

"Aging and volunteering go together beautifully, because giving back is a critical part of staying connected and alive," says Ms. Cannon, who, of course, is an avid gardener in her spare time. (Her neighbors refer to her house as the "jungle on the corner.") "I plan to keep up this pace as long as I can, because working with children and gardening makes every day wonderful."