Hope Blooms

Hope Blooms, a garden by, and for, people living with HIV/AIDS

AIDS Community Services’ Hope Blooms is a garden with a story and a garden with a soul.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead’s words are often profound and frequently state my thoughts better than I do myself. This well known Mead quote, to me, speaks to the very essence of Garden Walk Buffalo. With over 300 gardens on this free tour, it is the largest garden walk in the nation – and it is a 100% volunteer effort. With no paid staff and no public funding, the Garden Walk Buffalo committee has managed to create one of the City of Buffalo’s best summer events and biggest national and international public relations triumphs.

If you have ever been on the Garden Walk, you probably know that to locate the three hundred plus gardens featured you need to stop by one of three Garden Walk headquarters to get a map. While you are there you also have the opportunity to purchase some of their delightful Garden Walk merchandise such as baseball caps, tote bags, t-shirts and the beautiful Garden Walk Buffalo coffee table book.

This year, AIDS Community Services' (ACS') central headquarters, The Evergreen Center in the Pan American-era Roanoke Arms Hotel (corner of South Elmwood and Chippewa) will be one of the three Garden Walk headquarters.

With abundant space for the headquarters and free parking for the walkers, the committee decided to move the headquarters, formerly located on Allen Street, to our offices.

ACS’ “Hope Blooms” Garden at The Victorian, adjacent to The Evergreen Center, has been featured in the Garden Walk for five years. The first year there were only a smattering of gardens in this neighborhood, the Historic West Village, and we welcomed fewer than 300 guests over the weekend. This past year, there were multitudes of gardens on “our end” of Garden Walk and we had 3,000 visitors! The West End of Garden Walk has finally become a destination! The decision of the Garden Walk committee to open a headquarters in this neighborhood will only bring more garden enthusiasts to the “Hope Blooms Garden.” We are looking forward to our best year yet.

We will, once again, host the wildly popular Victorian Tea.

“The Victorian” is an 1854 homestead built in an Italianate architectural style. Renovated in 2003-2004 by ACS, it is one of the oldest original homesteads remaining intact in the core of Downtown Buffalo. This architectural gem, located at 200 South Elmwood Avenue, was saved from demolition by ACS. It had, for 50 years, served as a flophouse in what used to be a rather “colorful” neighborhood. It stood vacant for eight years before ACS purchased it and had been vandalized numerous times in this period.

Last year, to enhance the experience for Garden Walk visitors, we opened The Victorian to the public, creating the feel of a garden walk/house tour to the event. We hosted a free Victorian Tea, where volunteers served homemade iced tea, lemonade, cookies and scones to over 700 people. It was a tremendous success. Numerous people raved over the opportunity to see the renovated interior of this historic home and were thrilled to have the opportunity to sit and relax in air-conditioned comfort, while being served free refreshments. After a few hours in the hot sun, guests relished the opportunity to sit and relax, or just simply use the facilities.

Ron Silverio, ACS President & CEO has said: “When we closed on this property, we didn’t get a key for the front door, rather, a screw driver to remove the plywood.” Since its restoration, The Victorian has won the City of Buffalo Preservation Board’s Best Restoration Award and Business First’s Brick by Brick Historic Restoration Award.

The garden will be renovated this year.

ACS recently created the Hope Blooms Commemorative Walkway in The Garden at the Victorian, where donors can honor a loved one, living or deceased, in a beautiful park-like setting, while supporting the mission of the agency by purchasing an engraved brick, granite block, or bench. The Walkway enhances the already beautiful “Hope Blooms Garden.”

In addition to the Commemorative Walkway, we are embarking on an extensive garden expansion and renovation. We will remove a 40-foot handicap ramp and replace it with a more user-friendly electronic lift. The lift will allow more room for appreciation of the garden, allow us to reconfigure walkways for better traffic flow, and make room for further garden renovations. As part of the overall renovation project, we will expand and completely rebuild the pond and waterfall – using all stone and brick salvaged from the property – to enhance the beautification of this landmark property.

A complete volunteer effort, “Hope Blooms” was built as a unique garden “by and for” those living with HIV/AIDS. Having been featured in a full page photo in the Garden Walk Buffalo Book, it is recognized as one of Buffalo’s significantly beautiful gardens. Christopher Voltz, ACS’ Director of Marketing and Special projects volunteers his weekends, all summer long, to build and maintain this garden.

Clients and patients help plant the garden and its flowers are used to supply fresh bouquets of flowers to client services areas in our offices every week.

This simple gesture is greatly appreciated by ACS’ clients and patients. It is ACS’ belief that a warm and welcoming environment for its clients is of great importance. Whether one is living with cancer, diabetes or HIV disease, everyone deserves to be treated with the utmost respect. These bouquets and this garden are simple ways to demonstrate this to the thousands of individuals and families we serve.

We hope you can come out and enjoy Garden Walk Buffalo this year. Please visit us at The “Hope Blooms Garden at The Victorian” and stop in for the Tea at The Victorian.