By Katie Morrison
We all know the Golden Rule: love your neighbor as yourself. But Derek and Alicia White are taking this rule and making it their goal in life.
Back when they were dating, Alicia and Derek were already interested in serving their community. They got especially involved with refugees, namely from Burma and Sudan. “We always look for ways to build community,” Alicia said. “We want to live together and be a family to them.”
Everything this couple does is entwined with serving their community. Derek attended law school and immediately upon graduation, began volunteering for the Colorado African Organization, where he is currently employed. Alicia got her undergraduate degree in international studies before completing nursing school. In the last few years, she has also gotten involved with Bridges to Care, a group that targets frequent emergency room visitors, helping them overcome behavioral health issues and other barriers through sending specialists and nurse practitioners to their homes.
Three years ago, they were asked to take charge of the community garden in Aurora, Colorado. Derek provides legal services to refugees, including assistance with green card applications, and had already met quite a few Burmese families living in the area.
Many refugees used to work in agriculture and farming before they moved to America. “In America, there aren’t as many opportunities, especially if you live in a big city,” explains Alicia. “This is just one way we can connect with them and make this new strange place feel like home.”
Alicia is not a gardener. “I mostly talk with the families and play with the kids,” she laughs. “But many of the refugees have taught us different tricks!”
The garden has a chain link fence around its perimeter. Hanging about a foot apart are small wooden squares, each painted with different scenes, styles, and colors. As a way to include the children of the families who use the community garden, Alicia had them each paint their own square to be hung up. “It’s a way to make the kids feel more included,” she says. Unfortunately, they were all stolen a few years ago. Slowly they are being replaced by new pieces, but thieving and vandalism are still issues.
A while ago, a close friend of the Whites had grown some enormous watermelons. He was ecstatic, so proud of his fruit, and excited to eat them. He planned to let them sit a day or two more before picking them. He returned to the garden to take them and they had been smashed all over the ground. “He would’ve been okay if they had been taken to be enjoyed,” Alicia explains, “but they were just wasted and ruined.”
Recognizable produce, like watermelons and pumpkins, is often stolen or vandalized. In addition, the sizable shed that sits in the corner of the garden repeatedly ends up covered in graffiti.
“We try to have one work day a month where we have everyone come,” Alicia says. “We paint over the graffiti on the shed and we try to have a potluck. That’s kind of for selfish reasons because I love Burmese food!” The Whites strongly believe that a community garden’s purpose is for the community members to garden together, working in cooperation. But unfortunately sometimes it becomes prideful and individualistic, with everyone worrying about their own plots instead interacting with each other. The scheduled workday and potluck provide an opportunity to get together and garden at the same time.
“We were looking for ways to build community. We were uncomfortable with the idea of being benefactors. We wanted to live together, be a family to them. A great way to get in with the families is through the kids. They’re much easier to communicate with and very open,” Alicia says.
The garden, founded through Denver Urban Gardens, boasts quite a full roster. There are 36 plots and 10 raised boxes, a new feature that allows for some families to move off of the waitlist and get involved. Currently at least 45 different families work in the garden. Some families share plots, including Alicia and Derek. “I see new people I’ve never met here sharing with another family,” Alicia says. “The waitlist has about ten families on it now, but if we were to tell the refugees we had more space, we’d definitely be able to fill the garden again.”
The city of Aurora does offer free transplants and seeds that the gardeners have access too and many take advantage of that; but many also bring their own plants and seed, some completely unfamiliar to Alicia. “When we went to Burma last year, we tried to bring some seeds back and half of them got taken by security,” Alicia shrugs. “Apparently you aren’t allowed to do that!”
In October 2014, Alicia and Derek were able to indulge their love of travel and visited Burma. They met the families of many of their new Burmese friends from Aurora and got to develop new relationships as well. For years, one of their major life plans has been to live outside of the United States. Alicia studied abroad in Morocco when she was younger and Derek worked as an intern for the United Nations in Lebanon. Unfortunately, life has not allowed for that dream quite yet. Between school, legal cases, and now an adorable 2 1⁄2 month-old baby named Isaiah, the timing just hasn’t been right. “We moved to this area two years ago because this is where most of the refugees settle. While we wait for the timing to be right, we wanted to find ways to get involved in our city,” explained Alicia. “We do want to be open in regards to where we go. We pray lots and we’re just trying to see where God wants us to be. He doesn’t always say, ‘Go here!’ That would be too easy.”
When asked about how they juggle all their different commitments along with being new parents, Alicia laughs. “We’re figuring it out! We’re really blessed that Isaiah is so chill because I just carry him around.” She explains how important it was to her and Derek that their mission wouldn’t suffer as their family grew. “We want to give him that same mission. We bring him along as much as we possibly can,” she said. “We’re very busy and sometimes we overextend ourselves, but we did that before him too!”
Although they hope to move abroad in the next year or two, they’re making their current home welcoming to the entire neighborhood. “We want to live with people where they are. We like to have them over for meals, celebrate special events with them, like weddings,” she said.
Alicia told the story of a good friend, a refugee from Eritrea. Apparently she was the wrong kind of Christian and was put into prison. She was threatened and mistreated, but escaped the country with the help of smugglers. After flying from Russia to South America, she made her way all the way up and across the border. “Every time you talk to her, she says ‘God is good’,” Alicia says. “Her faith through all that is incredible.”
“We’ve met so many amazing people and have been so blessed by the relationships. We learn so much from these people,” she gushes. “Really it’s kind of selfish of us! We get to meet such amazing people. They teach us how to grow stuff and share their stories with us. We are lucky to know them.”
–Katie Morrison was RMC 2015 summer communication intern.