LORIS, SC (WBTW) – Giving Hope Gardens holds true to its name. The garden in Loris that opened Monday will not only help feed the community, but it will also employ people with special needs.
“We just want to provide a place where this special community can come to work and ultimately come to live and thrive in our society,” Dale Holt, Chairman of the Buck Creek Foundation, the group that created the garden said.
Helping people with special needs has been one of Holt’s passions since his son was diagnosed with autism.
“He is in his last year of school, and once the school bus stops coming by, there’s not a lot of options, and so I want him to have a place where he can come and contribute to society and interact with people,” Holt said.
Giving Hope Gardens is a place where people with special needs can work to grow and sell produce and plants to the local community, and hopefully learn skills needed to live independently.
The garden will sell a variety of produce depending on the season, along with different kinds of flowers and succulents.
“We want to have people come by and have things ever-changing and reasons to come by and take part,” Holt said.
It has taken more than a year to transform the once abandoned Clardy Nursery into Giving Hope Gardens, and Holt says he could not have done it without the community’s help.
“So many people came together and that to me is touching, because I see a community joining together to support our special community, and that’s why it’s so important that we give back from here,” Holt said.
Giving Hope Gardens will be open every Monday-Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. To learn how to get involved, click here.
