Judy Bolis has great faith in the volunteers of South Lyon. As a well-known volunteer in the community, she’s met many folks who give up their time to fill a need.

So Bolis is asking for volunteer help with some very special flower beds.

Bolis cooks and serves up meals for the 70 residents at the South Lyon Gardens Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. She loves her job because it gives her a chance to spend time with the elderly and ill folks there.

She’s noticed that the flower gardens at the non-profit care facility provide a lot of joy for residents. They’ve already started asking if the flowers are peeking up yet.

“I think they get tremendous pleasure from the gardens,” said Bolis, a South Lyon resident. “There’s no question that it helps their spirits.”

The folks love to sit in the dining room and look out at the flowers, or in nice weather, spend time outdoors walking or sitting near the flower beds. This year Bolis is trying to get some community help in making the flower beds more beautiful.

The beds desperately need a good spring cleaning, to remove weeds, pull out dead annuals and trim back perennials. They’re a mess of brown overgrowth.

Then Bolis hopes to add more perennials to the beds that will help them look good for many years to come.

It’s a sizable task, since the care facility has a half dozen beds. It’s just too large a job for the small staff, Bolis said.

“Last year, whoever could get out there would spend 20 minutes here or there in the flowerbeds, but that just wasn’t enough,” said Bolis. “They need some time spent to get them in shape – then we’ll be able to manage them.”

Throughout the years the flowers at South Lyon Gardens have highlighted downtown South Lyon, since the facility is so prominently located at the pass-through on Reynold Sweet Parkway, near the Paul Baker Memorial Park. Staff members would like to see the flowers add to the beauty of the community by sprucing up the well-traveled drive.

Bolis has already taken on the huge challenge of finding help, by contacting public and private organizations. While most public agencies have already turned down the project, there may be hope in local groups, landscapers or just concerned individuals.

She and other staff members are trying to enlist groups to take on a clean-up day or the staff is willing to organize a Saturday morning clean-up in May for willing individuals.

Since South Lyon Gardens is on a very fixed budget and staff members are stretched to capacity, there just isn’t any other possibility for getting the beds in shape.

Once the beds are cleaned up, Bolis is hoping to find local nurseries that would be willing to donate some plants to add to the beds.

She hopes to get the clean-up finished by mid-May then complete the planting by the end of May.

“All I want to do is make this a beautiful place for our residents that live here,” said Bolis. “It would mean so much to them. That’s why I’m going through all these efforts to get this taken care of.”

Those who are willing to help may contact Jean Gibbons or Judy Bolis at (248) 437-2048.

source : hometownlife.com