Garden helps spark career

At the Plains Regional Medical Center community garden, community members come together to watch the fruits of their labor grow. It’s also a place where young careers flourish.

One Saturday morning last spring, John Sharp, PRMC Director of Support Services, was approached by 18-year-old Brenin Hillis, a then-junior at Clovis High School who was seeking a place to plant his vegetable garden.

In an interview with the Eastern New Mexico News Hillis said his passion for gardening began when he started doing it with his grandpa when he was eight years old.

He wasn’t able to use school property that he had been using for years for gardening due to COVID-19 restrictions. His request to PRMC was borne from both a need to fulfill requirements for a college scholarship and a desire to help feed as many people as possible.

Hillis won a New Mexico Future Farmers of America (FFA) Proficiency award for Small Animal Production in June of 2019. He is hoping to win the American FFA award soon, but he won’t be eligible for it until the summer of 2022 after he’s completed a year in the collegiate FFA program.

“It was a very humbling experience (when I won the state award),” Hillis said. “I felt very proud.”

He will be attending Eastern New Mexico University this fall and plans to pursue a college degree in Agricultural Business and become a motivational speaker.

In the press release published by PRMC on June 2 Brenin’s mother Kara Hillis said her son just wants to help people.

“Brenin has a heart of gold and wants to help as many people as possible,” Kara said. “More space means he can help more people.”

Use of the community garden also meant an opportunity for Brenin to produce needed food for local homeless shelters and food banks.

Sharp also praised the young man in the press release.

“Brenin did an amazing job last summer and has even bigger plans for this year’s growing season,” Sharp said. “We’ve been thrilled to have him and are pleased to help him along his career path.”

PRMC provides most of the maintenance for the garden and all the water. Last year, Manual Segura and Daniel Garcia, PRMC maintenance personnel, built eight raised beds and did a massive clean-up. The community garden is open to the public. If you would like space in the garden, please contact John Sharp or visit the Clovis Community Garden page on Facebook.

In an interview with the Eastern New Mexico News Sharp invited anyone in the community to use the garden.

“We invite the community to come out and use it for whatever they need it for,” Sharp said. If they want to use it as a community service project and donate the vegetables, great; if they want to provide vegetables for their family or people that they know, that would be awesome too.”