I became a chiropractor in 1979. I began facilitating workshops on how to develop one's intuition and listening to what our bodies needs. For my own heath I started gardening. I did a huge CSA in Paonia, Colorado, developing techniques for working effectively to increase soil fertility and as ways to grow food without a lot of effort. Moved by what I heard of people being stranded on their roofs in hot, hot weather waiting to be rescued after hurricane Katrin, I went to New Orleans to volunteer. Once there i learned about and helped with bioremediation and permaculture work, as well working on a team that provided 1000 meals a day for months. Being a part of a working team moved me the most in Katrina. I started the Victory Garden project in November of 2007 to people could experience this kind of working together, to connect people to nature and for food security.

At the age of 10 I taught myself how to design websites and create graphic art. In 2006, I graduated from the University of Southern California with a BS in Business Administration. I started ZenDreamers with my wife Gabrielle Wisznia. It started out as an online community for dreamers. Our primary goal was to keep online dream journals and encourage others to do the same. Now our dream is evolving. We focus our energy on how to transform dreams into reality. ZenDreamers Design is a full-service web design company that helps people turn their visions into tangible online realities.

Victory Gardens For All was once just an idea, and in a few short months we have transformed the idea into a movement! I love helping people, working with the Earth, and spending time outdoors. I enjoy expressing myself through a variety of artistic mediums. I play guitar, sing, write songs, write poetry and prose, and paint.

I love building things. I built a tee-pee / mud hut in my parents yard out of recycled tree limbs, leaves, dirt, ivy, and grass. Everywhere I garden I am notorious for building intricate rock walls that surround the plants.

Rocks and crystals are my friends. I enjoy crystal healing, massage therapy, and nutritional consulting / experimenting. I'm always pushing myself to be stronger, healthier, and wiser. I was probably a medicine man in a past life because I instinctively know what plants to use in most situations. People think I'm crazy because they often see me covered with mud or clay. I always insist "it's good for your skin!"

I love gardening and some day hope to live and work in a community of eco-conscious people who are dedicated to creating a heavenly Earth for our children to inherit. I depend on plants for my survival, and they depend on me. It's a beautiful / magical symbiotic relationship that we sometimes take for granted.

I have been working as a Graphic Desgner for 14 years abd relocated to Oregon in 2005. I enjoy planting and harvesting a garden's bounty. I especially enjoy presvering the harvest, from canning and drying fruits and vegetables to making mead.

I encountered Victory Gardens for All two years ago when my partner saw an ad. Last year my family faced some economic shortfalls. The gardens from the victory gardens project really helped us shore up our budget for a couple of months. We were greatful.

This year my family is doing well and we wanted to give back by having my company, Hunter Creation, donate web hosting and site design to the cause. We are proud to be members of Victory Gardens For All.

I have been promoting local food in Lane County for most of my adult life.  I have started several natural food stores here in Eugene which bought produce and other foods from local farmers who were just getting started and needed local outlets. 

Decades ago, half the food we ate in Lane County was produced in the Wilammette Valley and now that percentage is a mere 5%.  It is important that we reverse the trend by preserving productive farmland and buying what is produced on this land.  It also makes sense to buy locally from a food security perspective. 

I have a small garden and it is personally fullfilling to plant, water and harvest some of my own fruits and vegetables.  Therefore, promoting the ability of others in the community to have gardens of their own through Victory Gardens for All is timely and important.

A blurb for Lance:  Lance chairs the Victory Garden planning meetings and leads garden installations.  He started gardening last year and now grows almost all his own food.  As an amateur food preserver he has made wines, jams, a solar dryer, a cider press and canned veggies.  Lance enjoys victory gardening because of all the interesting people he meets.  (Lance loves referring to himself in the third person.)

I'm from Louisiana.  I came to Eugene for grad school four years ago in UO's sociology program.  I am now a doctorial candidate with a focus in environmental sociology.  I love Oregon and I never want to leave.  I have recently discovered the joy of gardening and I want to help others discover the joy of growing their own food. 

 I recently moved to Eugene from Minnesota to focus on doing art and growing organic food,  Coming from a big city I did not have much experience gardening but was eager to learn.  The smell of earth and the feeling of wind is wonderfull.  I love plants and being outside.  I also coordinate a new organization: The Northwest Institute for Comunity Energy, which brings youth together with the community to develope or catalyze community scale sustainability projects and that is how I found out about Victory Gardens for All and Charlotte's need for involvement by the community.   

I studied graphic design, after high school and worked as a graphic illustrator and photographer in New York City and in California, and then worked in the field of arts and crafts for years until I realized it was harmfull to my health due to physical inactivity.  While in California I began studying the healing arts.  I studied at the California School of Massage, and the Platonic Academy of Herbal Studies, though my interest has always been to work with the live plant rather than dried herbal formulas, I comb the woods and fields for usefull plants.

I have taken plant science programs and also Landscape Architecture.  So, in the past 27 years I have worked in the field of garden design, garden care, stuarding, landscaping, wildcrafting, estate caretaking, computer drawing and computer drafting.  Throughout this time I have come to respect two aspects of the land:  Its ability to nurture all things, and its need to be nourished.  I hope to work in the area of native landscaping, when the opportunity arrives.