The harvest is well underway from a summer of hard work at St. Andrews Presbyterian Community Garden.
It’s place where Dave Kimball spends a lot of time.
Watch Dave Kimball talk his love of gardening:
“The beautiful thing is it’s a community of gardeners. You can say community garden but I like- it’s people working together, and I really enjoy that,” he says.
Kimball was recognized with an Eco-Justic award by Presbyterians for Earth Care for his vision and work organizing the garden.
It has grown tremendously since Kimball and a few other church members got it started 23 years ago.
There are now more than 100 plots—half for anyone in the community to use—the other half for a mission garden with the vegetables donated to organizations that help those in need such as Family Service.
“Out of this little mission garden area of the garden over two and a half tons of produce every year. It’s a lot of food,” he says.
Dave grew up on a farm near Hysham and majored in Ag Education, so it’s not surprising that he has an interest in growing things. But that was before he spent 30 years in the Air Force as a pilot—serving in the Vietnam War and then later as a faculty member at the Air War College.
It’s a career that took him all around the world before coming back home to Montana.
“I always enjoyed the flying. I was in F-100s and F-4s. It was a life where you are moving but seeing different things. You get a little older and you kind of look to put your roots down and that led us back here,” Kimball says.
He helped launch the aviation program at Rocky after moving back to Montana but stays pretty grounded these days, digging in the dirt.
“He was an officer in the Air Force at one time and he uses all of those skills in a really gentle way to make sure that we all do our part—and then he does more work than anyone else. So he leads by example,” says Jody McDevit, one of the gardeners.
Kimball is also involved with Billings' annual climate week—dedicated to climate education and action. It’s another way he practices being a good steward.
“It’s a feeling of fulfillment that you are doing something that is benefiting other people and benefitting our community and being part of that,” he says.
Kimball has also achieved the highest recognition given by Rotary International.
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