Osan's Maehol Dure Community Garden Wins Gyeonggi Province Village Garden Award

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Osan City announced on the 11th that the citizen-led community garden "Maehol Dure Community Garden (10-65 Sucheong-dong)," created in Sucheong-dong, has been selected as an outstanding village garden in the "2020 Gyeonggi Province Village Garden Award."

The 2020 Gyeonggi Province Village Garden Award is a recruitment project implemented to discover and award outstanding village gardens among 37 citizen-led community gardens created throughout Gyeonggi Province, thereby providing continuous motivation for resident participation and promoting the sharing and expansion of exemplary village garden cases.

In the first document screening, 10 local governments were selected after comprehensively considering the implementation content, resident participation, and sustainability of village gardens. Through on-site inspections by experts, Osan City was finally selected as the "Outstanding Village Garden Award" winner among a total of four recipients (three Outstanding Village Garden Awards and one Beautiful Participation Award).

The Maehol Dure Community Garden Steering Committee created a year-round flower garden on a pedestrian-only pathway that had concerns about illegal dumping and safety, and installed lighting to improve aesthetics and create a safe passage for students.

Throughout the past year, the committee conducted regular maintenance four times a week with the goal of "community recovery through gardens." It continued steady activities linked to the garden, including selection through resident-proposed community project recruitment and job creation through connections with the Hope Jobs program.

Choi Jae-seo, chairman of the Maehol Dure Community Garden Steering Committee, said, "I am grateful for the dedication of the Maehol Dure community garden staff members who have worked hard to maintain the garden and revitalize the community over the past year," and added, "We will continue to make the neighborhood more beautiful together with residents."