Natural Home Earth Mover Award: Julie Downer Henley

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When she saw the For Sale sign, Julie Downer Henley worried about what would happen to the farm in the valley across the way. She fretted over the disappearing heritage and agricultural roots in her hometown of Onalaska, Wisconsin. And when she heard a developer was buying it for another high-density subdivision, she was crushed.

Around this time, Henley saw construction workers breaking up cement while she was out walking. She asked them to dump the load at her house rather than a landfill. “They looked at me like I was a nutcase,” she chuckles.

But Henley figured she could find a use for the rubble, and as she stood scratching her head over the ten-foot mounds in her driveway, a curious band of bike-riding boys pulled up. “Do you guys want to help build some stuff?” she offered.

The adolescents soon returned–most wearing garden gloves, ready to help. They spent three days moving dirt, rolling wheelbarrows, and hauling concrete for raised beds. None would take Henley’s money; all showed up by 8 a.m. “It’s easy for kids to get sucked into park and rec activities and music lessons,” she says. “But valid work is real difficult to find in the suburbs.”

This got her thinking about that farm, and soon Henley found herself in the office of the developer who had bought it. “We can do better than this,” she announced.

  • Published on Jul 1, 2003
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