{"id":1450,"date":"2026-04-20T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2026-04-20T11:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:49:20","slug":"meet-jean-dion-master-gardener-volunteer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/2026\/04\/20\/meet-jean-dion-master-gardener-volunteer\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Jean Dion, Master Gardener volunteer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Jean in Salem, being a Master Gardener volunteer has opened up conversations about food, climate and what it means to feel more secure in your own garden. She thought she might be helping people with lawns and roses. Instead, she\u2019s found herself talking with families who are trying to grow food and adapt to a changing world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jean<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“I\u2019ve learned a lot about how to be successful in my own garden, and that\u2019s been very rewarding. No one likes dying plants! But the best part has been helping people in the community learn how to grow their own vegetables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought the Master Gardener program would be largely about helping people grow green lawns or keep roses alive. Instead, many of my conversations have been with families who are worried about food prices. Helping them feel more secure is quite a gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m very proud of some of the programming we\u2019ve shared with the community, including the Garden Future series. Being able to discuss climate change with a large group of folks at the state fair, without having any arguments or hurt feelings, was just an amazing thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cHelping people feel more secure is quite a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve met several people who have talked with me at two or more tabling events here in Salem, and they\u2019ve told me about how an idea or two I shared helped them in their gardens. Those have been pretty great conversations!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it\u2019s easy to keep our heads down in times of stress and strife. Connecting with people always helps, and I find that gardening is one of those universal conversation points. Talking about gardening has been really good for me over the last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change is shifting what people can grow successfully, so some of the lessons people learned as kids are no longer applicable. Master Gardener volunteers have access to science-based information that can be useful as people reimagine what they can grow, including food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m grateful I was selected as a trainee last year. I look forward to participating for many years to come.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P.S. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the OSU Extension Master Gardener Program, and these stories remind us what we\u2019re celebrating. On Wednesday, April 29, Dam Proud Day<\/a> gives us one day to show up for the statewide program that supports Master Gardener volunteers across Oregon. In fact, you can join in early giving and actually give now!<\/a><\/strong> And if you are a Master Gardener volunteer \u2014 or ever have been \u2014 we\u2019d still love to hear your story at Beav.es\/mgstory<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Jean in Salem, being a Master Gardener volunteer has opened up conversations about food, climate and what it means to feel more secure in your own garden. She thought she might be helping people with lawns and roses. Instead, she\u2019s found herself talking with families who are trying to grow food and adapt to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Meet Jean Dion, Master Gardener volunteer”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10670,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1238875,1238872,1],"tags":[1238873],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-50th-anniversary","category-dam-proud-day","category-uncategorized","tag-dam-proud-day"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10670"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1453,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions\/1453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}