Less than a year after opening the Laura Street Community Garden to rave reviews, waiting lists, and a Mayoral award, Amanda Searle and Ray Beeson have bigger things in mind.  

Much bigger. 

Along with Allison Vega, Ian Ownby, and Bill Thomas, they plan to make “Sustainability” synonymous with Springfield, through their new non-profit Sustainable Springfield.

One drizzly, late summer afternoon, I met up with the group to get the scoop..........

Amanda Searle: co-founder & President of Sustainable Springfield, local resident and realtor. 

Allison Vega: Vice President of S.S., Volunteer Coordinator for the Sulzbacher Center, and Springfield connoisseur. 

Ray Beeson: co-founder and Treasurer, property owner, MSA Group bond underwriter, and realtor. 

Ian Ownby: Secretary of S.S., and Operation New Hope’s main man in Springfield.  

Bill Thomas: the “Idea Man”, Three Layers bartender, and local resident.

And away we go…..

Sorry I’m late. I had a thing.   Wow, that’s a lot of empty beer bottles!   (ahem)

How did you guys get started?

 Ray:    Amanda & I were active in the old community garden on Main Street. It was a neat little garden and space, but it was a challenge at the same time. It didn’t have a water source, for example. So we started to look elsewhere.

Amanda:    The Main Street garden was started in 2008, I think. The founder understood it was difficult location and was cool with us starting a new one. 

Ray:    So gardening was a common interest for us, and we wanted to do something with that. Around food, cooking, gardening, or something like that. Then I realized I had a property, an empty lot, on Laura Street that I didn’t have any immediate plans for….why not turn that into a garden?

Amanda:    Tom Scangarello of Operation New Hope lived across the street and from the lot, and said we could umbrella the project under ONH for a while. Then I worked with Americore on a plan to get started.

Ray:   We reached out to a couple other local organizations first, but they didn’t show much interest.

Amanda:    And that’s where I met Allison, through Americore.

Allison:    I was working with the Eastside Community Garden at the time.

Ian:    Amanda & I knew each other from doing business with ONH.

Bill:    And I was asked to get involved. Well, I more or less begged to be involved, actually.

Ray:    No, he just got tired of listening to us sit around and talk about it, so he decided to join in.

We started construction on the Laura Street Community Garden in November ’09, fencing and beds mostly, and by January 2010 we already had a waiting list. So we started to think…..why not take it to the next level?

Amanda:    Allison, Ian, Ray, & I started brainstorming in the ONH offices. We didn’t want to be regulated by ONH rules, and it wasn’t really their mission or expertise, so we decided the best option was to do it ourselves: start a new non-profit with a new mission and new goals.

Bill:    They just felt sorry for me and let me in.

That sounds like a rather natural, organic process ( pun intended ).   Hmmm.

What is “Sustainability”, anyway?   And what’s the organization’s mission?

Bill:    We’re working on that now.[**author’s note: the full Philosophy Statement can be found at the end of this interview**]  The word “sustainability” if you look it up in the dictionary, means “to hold up from under”. Basically it means to build things - structures, programs, relationships, etc – that will hold life. It’s a difficult thing to define because it can touch so many things.

Amanda:    Sustainability empowers and gives value. It’s about changing from a commodity-based system to a values system. It’s about taking the resources we have just in our small, 1 x 1 square mile historic district and maximizing them.

Bill:    Yeah, it means so many things and can be applied to almost any aspect of our lives. One aspect would be scale. The scale our lives. The scale of things in our lives. We, as Americans particularly, have an insatiable appetite for “bigger, faster, and more”.  Our scale is too large. The way we live is simply unsustainable in the long view. We need to shrink our thinking. Localize it. But to wrap our heads around it, it helps to think of specifics.

Let’s look at our food. Food grown in California or South America is shipped to our local supermarkets daily. Fuel, disease, unknown chemicals, impact on the environment, impact on our health, etc. Why do all that? We can grow our food locally. Why send our money elsewhere? Why not start a local economy here? Bigger is not necessarily better, and no one cares about the place you live more than you do. 

Amanda:    A neighborhood specific economy is something that really intrigues us.

Bill:    Widening the scope of this out a little more, exposing people to these ideas is key. For example, many under privileged kid’s idea of a good meal is McDonald’s or a frozen pizza. They just haven’t been exposed to what real, genuine food is. Once they see it in front of them, and what the process is, they learn to appreciate it. It’s like casting a net on a school of fish, because they become so interested in how it all works.

Ray:    This is why Bill is our Idea Man.

Amanda:    Speaking of food, not just food in general, but the process of food. Growing it, harvesting it, preparing it, eating it, sharing it. We’ve gotten away from this in the last 50 years, after doing it for thousands of years. It teaches life lessons, builds relationships with the people around you, and creates an appreciation for what you have. I think it also helps you learn how to make due with what you have.

Bill:    I agree. Preparing and sharing food around a table with friends is spiritual in some sense. It’s more about relationships. Sustainable relationships between man and nature, and relationships between people. This is what sustains us and it’s what ultimately sustains communities.

Ian:    And Sustainability can be looked at from many angles, not just food. We all bring different passions to the table, and we share passions too. So although my background is in construction, for example, I have a more holistic approach. And the group has a holistic perspective, too. So I’d love to do a green building project of course, but we’re also interested in projects that focus on beautification, alternative transportation, community activism, and adding value.

You see, Sustainability is about adding value, as Amanda mentioned. If something doesn’t have value, it’s not going to last, whatever it may be. It’s especially true of people’s homes. There are so many things homeowners can do to improve their 1902 Victorian. The homes have proved their sustainability by being here after 100 years, but to survive the next 100 years things like energy efficiency are going to be important.

Amanda:    And this isn’t Springfield specific. Everyone can relate to this. Look at the world today and the role energy is playing in the 21^stcentury.

Ok, I think you’ve just blown my mind.   Give me a moment.

What does this mean practically for Springfield?

Amanda:    We’re talking with the city and property owners about acquiring or using a number of different oddly-shaped, unbuildable lots in the neighborhood. There’s a lot on E. 4^thwe plan to use as a communal garden. A communal garden is different from a community garden in that everyone does the work and everyone shares in the bounty. It would mean less work for individuals, while incorporating more people, basically. Brent Staton, owner of An Olde Time Hardware, has already committed to help with this project.

We’ve also just acquired a lot on Ionia. It’s going to be an orchard, but completely non-citrus.

Allison:    All the trees and plants will be indigenous to the area.  So that might include apple trees, peach, fig, raspberry, guava, blackberry, blueberry, etc. We don’t want to worry about high maintenance plants. Considering the number of lots that may be available, we’re thinking of a 5 year plan.

Amanda:    Along with the communal garden and orchard, other shorter-term projects being discussed are aqua cultures, green building projects, soil building, flower gleaning, harvest festivals, and possibly consulting with others areas about organizing their own community gardens. We’ve actually been in contact with a number of other potential community garden groups, a number in Jacksonville, but as far away as Tallahassee too.

Ian:    We hope to host regular workshops on green building, green renovations, and practical things like that. There a number of basic things people can do to reduce their energy consumption at home, maybe saving $100 a month on their utility bill. Think This Old House but with me instead of Bob Villa.

We've tossed around ideas like How-to sessions on window filming, repairing ductwork leaks, weatherization, etc.  The goal is to be less reliant on JEA and thus, you guessed it, more sustainable.

No offense, but I’d prefer Villa.   At any rate, I’m impressed.

Is there anything else you want people to know?

Amanda:    We’ve already coordinated a few small projects and functions here and there, but we’re going to formally present ourselves soon, publicly as an organization. Oh, and a Fall Harvest Festival is being planned for October. A scarecrow contest, pumpkin patch, and other details are being worked out now. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

We also host monthly workshops at the Laura Street Community Garden, the 3^rdSaturday of every month, and distribute a bi-monthly e-newsletter. Those have been well received and we’ll continue to do those.

Besides that, we would just like to have everyone’s support.

To find out more about Sustainable Springfield, contact Amanda Searle at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sustainable Springfield's Philosophy Statement

The root of the word sustainable incorporates the Latin words meaning to “hold up from below”.  The central aim of sustainability is to lay foundations that preserve and enhance life.  Sustainability summons a challenge for us to construct our lives and communities on actions and disciplines that do not lead to failure and collapse. A house built on sand is not sustainable. It is not sustainable that we have managed our cities for over a hundred years now as if it was a slab of concrete, with no consideration given to the natural ecosystems that exist. We must begin to see the land as a living system and begin to wisely manage our cities and infrastructure in ways that balance the needs of both human and natural communities, preserving both for all creatures to enjoy.

We believe that healthy communities are the result of human beings respecting, caring for, and enjoying their fundamental relationships. John Muir said, "When you pick one thing up by itself you find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." It is when we lose sight of Muir's understanding of how deeply interconnected life is that both human culture and nature experience debilitation, and worse, alienation and withdrawal from one other.  A society that does not understand its debt to nature becomes destructive to nature and thus of itself.  So what we are working toward is a relationship between human culture and nature that is characterized by affection, intimacy, and harmony.

Life is beautifully complex, diverse and mysterious.  This demands a comprehensive perspective for the work of stewardship.  To think “sustainably” is to view the world through an all-embracing framework that helps us better to discern the nature of things and how to rightly value them, as Muir’s words suggest. Sustainability helps us come to terms with the world as a whole, the totality of which we are all responsible participants. The Raison d'être of Sustainable Springfield is to invest our best energies, our most creative thoughts, and our deepest hopes toward the work of reconciliation, renewal and peace. 

 --Sustainable Springfield--

From Left to Right: Ray, Allison, Ian, Amanda, & Bill