The sun was beaming down on the Rainbow Garden of Life and Health in Melrose on Saturday, Aug. 3, but that didn’t stop its members from conducting business as usual. Argie Ortiz was tending to her plant bed of herbs and tomatoes while Angel Garcia was struggling with the giant sunflower that keeps falling every time it storms.
Milagros Rivera Negron was holding a freshly plucked pear that was gifted to her, near and dear to her heart and a little girl in a princess-like dress, topped with a tiara enjoyed a gooey chocolate chip cookie – life was good and it was about to get better. On Aug. 3, City Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Jr.
, along with his wife, Jessenia Aponte, Bronx borough commissioner for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and their son Aidan, joined the members of the Rainbow Garden to cut the ribbon on their newly paved walkway. “A lady in a wheelchair wanted to come into the garden — and I said, ‘come in,’” Rainbow Garden founder, Maximino Rivera, told the people in attendance. “But as soon as the woman entered the garden, her wheels became stuck.
From that moment on, I said one of my projects is to get [a floor] because we don’t exclude anybody.” And get a floor they did. On Saturday, Rivera’s mother was sitting in her walker under the gazebo and the shade of a mulberry tree with her wheels sturdy on the cement.
The new pavement of the Rainbow Garden of Life and Health on Melrose Avenue and 157th Street. Photo ET Rodri.