Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Amanda Norton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Amanda , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

In 2017 I was inspired to make a difference in my community. With all the negative news swirling around, I wanted to give the Village of Ilion something to be proud of. I wanted to make a difference in my community. The community I grew up in, the community I am raising a family in means a lot to me. I have spent most of my life in this small town, and wanted to create something to make it a better place.

I have a true passion for gardening, the environment, and eating healthy. What better way to marry all of these concepts than creating a community garden. When I purchased my home in Ilion and began gardening, I quickly outgrew my small yard and wanted more space to practice. My interests in growing fruit trees and berry bushes would never be reality in my small patch at home. A community garden would be perfect. I saw a quote that read “A year from now, you will have wished you started today.” I couldn’t wait for someone to do it for me, I had to do it myself.

After a year of advocating, in 2018 we were given permission to create our community garden on public property on East Main Street in Ilion, and the first thing we did was plant 4 apple trees and a bunch of blueberry bushes. Every year since then we have made steady progress mostly funded from bake sales, plant sales, and generous donations.

Amanda , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I like to think of myself as a community activist and natural leader. As the oldest of 6 children, I grew up with a lot of responsibility at a young age. My parents have strong work ethic, and I learned from them how important it is to work hard towards your goals. When we moved to Ilion when I was 12 years old, I was terrified to walk into school the first day. I remember the kindness of a few people that I am still connected to today over 25 years later. I will never forget the kindness I was shown that day, and it has been my mission to always make people feel welcome and that they belong.

As a naturally shy person, approaching the village board and advocating for this cause was a huge step out of my comfort zone. Another kind person made sure I had the opportunity to speak, and I was so nervous. There are community gardens all over the country. When I first began the journey of bringing one to Ilion, it took a year to figure out where to put it. There were roadblocks and red tape. In order to be taken seriously by village officials, I started a social media campaign and began hosting public meetings at the local library. We needed to show there was public support and enthusiasm for the project. I handed out flyers and attended local events. It took time, but I met some like-minded people who were willing to help me and we got to work. I am forever grateful for their support and participation. Without my friends and family, this never would have happened.

We created a space on East Main St with 15 raised garden beds, a water tank, a shed, and perennial plants. We have a strip of pollinator flowers that feeds our insects and songbirds. We also have a seed library and a ton of support from our local DPW team. They fill our water tank and empty the garbage can as needed. In 2022, we donated over 50 pounds of food to our local food pantry.

After 5 years of leading this project, I am most proud of the beauty created from nature. We were given a patch of grass and dead trees. What we have built in it’s place is a sanctuary for songbirds and butterflies. We’ve created a space where you can sit in the shade and talk about plants with like minded people. You can share food you’ve grown with your neighbors, and you can take pride in your ability to feed your family fresh organic produce that you grew yourself.

Kindness really reigns supreme around this mission. Anyone is welcome, there is never a dumb question, you can always sit with us. I am proud of the community, but there is so much more work to be done.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

As a non-profit we relied heavily on the generosity of our volunteers and community members to get this project launched. We were fortunate to have the help and connections of my mother Patty, who did all the leg work on getting us set up as a 501(c)3 and connecting us with an attorney that gave us a great deal on getting Ilion Community Garden Inc. all established and tax exempt.

We received some small grants through Stewarts Holiday Match and Columbia Solar, however most of our funding has been through generous donations from family, friends, and village residents. We have done bake sales and plant sales. We have also partnered with Evolve Massage and Wellness. Sarah was generous enough to raffle off free services and name us the beneficiary of the raffle ticket sales.

We have partnered with Ilion True Value Hardware on a few occasions. They donated items we raffled off at local events. We also had a very generous radio host Brittany Lee with Bug Country throw us a fundraiser celebrating our first year. We had donations of raffle items and a bake sale. The weather was absolutely perfect that day, and it was a great party!

While I’m excited to see community gardens popping up in neighboring villages, we were not lucky enough to be given thousands of dollars in grant funding. Every dollar was hard earned and has been put to very good use.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Building an audience on social media can be challenging and I don’t think I have this perfected yet. As you can probably guess, I’m good with plants NOT technology. I have tried a lot of techniques, but honestly speaking social media is not the only marketing tool available to you.

I first created a Facebook business page and group named “Ilion NY Community Garden” and coined the #iliongrows. I created an Instagram account named iliongrows. I also use MailChimp for communicating to our subscribers via email.

I have found that consistency is key. I am definitely lacking in that department lately. People really enjoy positive messaging and relatable content. With Facebook, our supporters are mostly locals. I like using FB to create events like meetings and fundraisers. I like to use Instagram to create beautiful visual content of our garden. I have not yet familiarized myself with TikTok, but I would love to give it a try. SnapChat is another great option that I haven’t started using as a business yet, but I love using it personally to stay connected to close friends and family.

I have mostly kept our content positive, but I get the most interaction from followers when I post a little drama. When our wheelbarrow was stolen, we received hundreds of dollars in donations in response as well as many comments of encouragement and kind words. Sometimes you gotta post the gritty, real experience. While we don’t have very “negative” things to say, it seems that most people want to help when they see you struggling. It’s really heartwarming.

I found that networking in the community and sending people to your social media pages is important. Putting a face to the cause is important to the human connection. You don’t have to post every day, but try to make sure you reply to DMs as quickly as possible. I also try to connect with other organizations in my community through my social media page and “like” their content as much as possible.

I’ve tried giveaways where they have to like, share, and tag a friend. I don’t know if that’s the best way to grow your audience. I found it hard to track. I’ve also tried content where we post a trivia question and picture, and the first correct answer gets a gift. It was fun but I can’t say I got any real social media audience growth from it.

As far as the emails, I find them time consuming to design and write. I like to write, but our click and open rates have never been above 20%. I don’t know if there is a better way to utilize email communications, so I’m always willing to hear and learn what successful people are doing. I would assume it takes time and consistency to create a big email following, something I haven’t really put a lot of effort into developing.

I do believe that short video content is the best way to capture an audience. Everyone has short attention spans! I never go live, but that’s a me thing. I hate seeing my face on a camera, which I have been told that everyone feels this way. I also need to upgrade to a tripod or something. I have short arms and I hold the camera to close to my face. We did a seed starting class last year and posted the FB live to our newsfeed, and feedback from followers was that it was helpful.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: iliongrows
• Facebook: Ilion NY Community Garden

Image Credits
Ilion Community Garden Inc. Amanda Norton