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MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2009
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Volume 8 Issue 232
Santa Monica Daily Press RARE ROYALTY SEE PAGE 8
COMMUNITYPROFILES
EDWARD GUERBOIAN
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THE DIGGING DEEP ISSUE
Gardening for the soul BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
SUNSET PARK There’s a hearty vegetable garden in Greg Fuller’s backyard with seemingly enough vegetables to fill the produce section of a small grocery store, teeming with zucchini, corn and tomatoes. Tending to the small farm is a team of men and women who come without fail every Tuesday and Saturday morning for about three hours, pulling weeds, tilling the soil, and taking some of the ready-to-eat crop at the end of the day.
The gardeners are clients of OPCC’s Safe Haven, a shelter that serves the needs of chronically homeless individuals who live with mental illnesses, and for the past year, they have sought solace and purpose in a blooming plot of land on Cedar Street. “The garden is very therapeutic to me and the rest of my members,” said Felix Garcia, a Safe Haven resident who not only serves as the team leader, but also the shelter’s chef, using the garden’s vegetables in his menu. With a dozen chickens and even more worms fertilizing the soil in his backyard, Fuller saw a golden opportunity to build a
vegetable garden, posting an advertisement on Craigslist for a gardener. But rather than pay, Fuller proposed a deal — he would provide the land, water and seeds while the gardener would perform all the work but receive half of the crop. The first response came from Todd Cosper, who was back then the activities coordinator for Safe Haven, asking if Fuller would be interested in taking on a group of homeless clients. “He told me he had a few people in his SEE GARDEN PAGE 10
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com GUERBOIAN
Jeweler is a real Santa Monica gem BY NATALIE JARVEY Special to the Daily Press
DOWNTOWN An engagement can be one of the happiest times in a person’s life and for Edward Guerboian, it’s an occasion he celebrates almost daily. As the owner of Readers Fine Jewelers, Guerboian, 57, said it would take him days to recount all of the engagement stories he’s been a part of since the store opened in 1976. Just two weeks ago he had one of his most memorable stories to date. A couple knocked on his door after hours and said they had come to look at rings. Once the woman had chosen a ring, her fiancé motioned to Guerboian, got down on one knee and proposed in the middle of the store. “It was so exciting,” Guerboian said of the evening. These stories continue to excite him even though he’s heard them his entire life. Jewelry has long been a family tradition, Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com
SEE CP PAGE 10
GROWING IN UNEXPECTED WAYS: Friend Nguyen tends to tomato plants at the home of Greg Fuller on Saturday morning.
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