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I appreciated the opportunity to work with Dwayne Barton and the Peace Garden as my first introduction to the community of Asheville. I was inspired by Dwayne’s vision for his community, and overflowing creativity that is used in addressing the major social, racial, environmental, and political issues that they are facing. While I was partnered with the community to offer a mentoring pressences for the youth in the neighborhood, I ended up being mentored by Dwayne, which I felt very honored to have in my life for that semester. While I think that my work as a gardener and composter was very helpful, I believe it was my faithfulness to continuously showing up each week that produced the greatest fruitfulness. Through my prior years of community engagement work through urban gardens, I am convinced that authentic relationship building should always be one of the major goals to work towards. This is what I saw and learned from working with the Burton Street Community. The space has a long history of growing relationships, and continuously growing potential catalysts for quality change in the community. My own challenge of this work was the fact that the Covid-19 cut our year off early in the spring of 2020. It was my last year on the Bonner Crew, and by the time we came back in person, my new schedule working on the Farm Crew has made it challenging to reconnect with Dwayne for the last 2 years. This has weighed heavily on my heart, as I was hopeful that our relationship together would continue to strengthen over my time at Wilson. I am very grateful in the opportunity to learn from Dwayne about the long and rich history of the African American Community in Asheville. I know now more contextually how cities like Asheville are living in hypocrisy when they say they are “investing in equitable development”, and yet continue to restrict funding for community development in neighborhoods like Burton Street, and prioritize the tourism industry over affordable housing initiatives.