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Residents use hands, feet to decorate new sign for Tarentum community garden | TribLIVE.com
Valley News Dispatch

Residents use hands, feet to decorate new sign for Tarentum community garden

Emily Balser
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Emily Balser | Tribune-Review
Lower Burrell resident Kriston Reese adds a “pea pod” with her thumb to the new sign for Tarentum’s Greg Blythe Friendship Garden on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019.
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Emily Balser | Tribune-Review
Emily Whitco, the niece of the late the Rev. Greg Blythe, puts the finishing touches on a new sign for the friendship garden in Tarentum that is named after her uncle on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019.
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Emily Balser | Tribune-Review
Freeport resident Fran Waldenville puts her mark on the new sign for Tarentum’s Greg Blythe Friendship Garden. The garden is named after the late pastor of her church, Abundant Joy Fellowship.
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Emily Balser | Tribune-Review
Volunteer Kari Roslund, left, helps Beau Key and his children River, 2, and Kaiha, 5, decorate the new sign for Tarentum’s Greg Blythe Friendship Garden on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019.
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Emily Balser | Tribune-Review
Emily Whitco, the niece of the late the Rev. Greg Blythe, helps Lucas Klimkowski, 10, decorate a sign on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019 for Tarentum’s friendship garden that was renamed after Blythe.
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Emily Balser | Tribune-Review
Emily Whitco, the niece of the late the Rev. Greg Blythe, helps Lucas Klimkowski, 10, decorate a sign on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019 for Tarentum’s friendship garden that was renamed after Blythe.

From making ears of corn with their hands and pea pods with their thumbs, members of Abundant Joy Fellowship and the Alle-Kiski community came together Sunday to make their mark on the new sign for Tarentum’s Greg Blythe Friendship Garden.

The effort was led by Blythe’s niece, Emily Whitco, who painted the sign and helped residents with their creations. Her husband Matt Whitco, built the sign.

Blythe was the pastor of Abundant Joy Fellowship in Tarentum and one of the founders of the friendship garden. He died last November from cancer.

Whitco said she wanted to make the sign as a way to honor her uncle.

“He always loved kids so I wanted a way to incorporate the kids into it,” she said. “So I designed a garden where they could put their handprint, footprint or thumbprint into be a vegetable or flower in the garden.”

At the bottom of the sign a drawing of Blythe is done in gold.

“He’s seen gardening in gold because he had a heart of gold,” Whitco said.

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Categories: Local | Valley News Dispatch
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