Parker Celebrates the Wellness Benefits of Horticulture Therapy
To cap off this week’s celebration of our Horticulture team, we wanted to highlight the work of Lee Shahay, who will be retiring in August after 17 years of service. Her work to bring horticulture therapy to Parker has made a tremendous impact on our residents by fostering the mutually beneficial relationship between plants and people.
Lee received her professional education from the New York Botanical Gardens, where she took classes in Botany, Floral Design, and General Gardening. Before transitioning to Parker full-time, Lee worked for the Somerset County Park Commission in their Therapeutic Recreation department.
Lee Shahay has provided gardening programs and horticulture therapy for Parker’s residents for 17 years.
Over the years, Lee has created hundreds of unique programs to help our residents become closer to nature and experience the fulfillment that comes with tending a garden. One career highlight has been the certification of several Parker properties as official Monarch Butterfly Gardens. It was important for Lee to put residents right in the middle of the process. They took part in planting plants, learning about monarch butterfly life cycles, and even harvesting eggs when the time came. Everyone involved is proud of helping thousands of monarch butterflies have a better chance of survival.
For Lee, one powerful memory of her time at Parker is back in 2020 when she used gardening and horticulture therapy to help reduce isolation and create community during the first waves of COVID-19. She created a series of outdoor programs where residents, straight from their balconies, participated in educational and entertaining activities while maintaining social distancing. She also put together cart programs in which she went door-to-door to have individual experiences and education with residents, and keeping residents connected. She even created a “victory garden” as an optimistic and patriotic community project during a difficult time.
When speaking about horticulture therapy, Lee pointed out that plants and people often need the same sorts of things to survive. This perspective of finding similarities between ourselves and the world around us is something everyone can benefit from. We thank Lee for the joy she has brought to all of us throughout her many years of service, for sharing her passion and knowledge, and for making a meaningful difference in the lives of everyone we serve at Parker.
