Salinas, California, USA
September 23, 2013
September is an exciting month for the Salinas Valley of California. A non-profit organization has pulled together the community to build a special playground. The playground is centered on giving full accessibility to all children, including those with special needs. Tatum’s Garden was inspired by a little girl named Tatum, who has Spina Bifida.
The entire Salad Team donated their time and muscle power to building the Tatum’s Garden playground.
Tatum’s family rallied a community to fundraise and gather support to build a playground, which is now the only one of its kind with in a 250 mile radius. Monterey County Public schools has enrolled over 6,800 children whom have some type of special need, whether that is physical, emotional or mental, and that does not count children like Tatum who are below school-age, or those in the private sector. This playground will change the lives of thousands of children and their care givers in the Salinas Valley.
Nunhems’ Salad team was a dedicated part of the uprising for this children’s playground. Tatum’s Garden is themed after the agriculture of the Salinas Valley and many sections of the play structure are dedicated to specific crops. Nunhems’ Salad team has sponsored a large portion of the “Spinach Zone”. Specifically Nunhems’ donation supported the building of several specific components, such as, the “Super Spinach Spinner”, “Salad Spinner”, and the “Spinach Activity Wall”.
Another large portion of the playground that Nunhems was deeply involved in was the actual building of the playground. Thousands of volunteers took shifts September 10th through the 15th to literally lend a hand to see this project completed. The Salad team hydrated this project by donating over 2,000 bottles of water, specially designed with ‘Nunhems’ logo labels’ for the project build days. The Salad team and their friends and family felt so strongly about this cause that they picked up tools and donated their time building the actual playground.
Dawn Klawitter talks about what a touching experience this event was for everyone that was a part of it. “It’s hard to say how our team feels without tears because we received more than we imagined possible. Our hearts are full of joy and pride right now. We all are proud to be a part of this event, proud that our company was a part of this, and proud to live and work in such a great community.” Not only was this an excellent opportunity for Nunhems to be connected to their community, but also a way for individuals to come together and build a closer knit Salad Team.
The vegetable seed business of Bayer CropScience operates under the brand Nunhems. Nunhems is the global specialist in vegetable genetics and services. As a globally integrated group of teams Nunhems builds unique customer relationships and shares products, concepts and expertise with the professional horticultural production industry and supply chain. The portfolio of Nunhems consists of varieties of 28 vegetable crops, including leading varieties of carrot, cucumber, leek, lettuce, melon, onion, pepper, tomato, and watermelon. With more than 1,800 employees, Nunhems is present in all major vegetable production areas in the world.
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