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Community

Botanical Center Cuts the Vine to Ability Garden

A new accessibility garden is now open in Rock Island.

This morning, the Quad City Botanical Center held a ribbon cutting for its Ability Garden which is inclusive and sensory-friendly.
Executive Director Ryan Wille says the family of Linda Litt provided initial funding. She was a nurse born in Davenport who struggled with mobility issues before she died.

"What her family wanted most out of this space was simple: to create a beautiful, inclusive space for everyone, that excludes nobody to celebrate her memory."

Wille says the botanical garden took extra measures to ensure the project is as accessible as possible.

"We decided to stop putting pencil to paper, or mouse to screen, in 2022, and design this garden the old fashioned way. We got out here, by hand, with notebooks, poster board and spray paint and a wheelchair. We made sure that what we were designing would work exactly as we envisioned."

The garden was then planted by the "Dayhab" program at Hand in Hand in Bettendorf. People who visit the Ability Garden will enjoy it with all their senses, such as lamb's wool to touch and lavender to smell. The plants are located in easy-to-reach elevated beds.

Community
Susanna Kemerling is WVIK Quad Cities NPR's 2022 Fellowship Host/Reporter. She graduated from Northern Illinois University for Media Studies in Communication and spent the last year working as a Teaching Assistant through the graduate program at NIU.
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