‘Literally raised in a garden,’ community gardener Amber Beeson dies at 40
Her organization helped train teachers, parents and other volunteers at dozens of area schools on how to create their own gardens.
By Steven Mayer
Bakersfield.com
Dec 21, 2020
Excerpt:
“When she was little, we had a small place in east Bakersfield on one-third of an acre,” Sammons remembered.
They grew organic vegetables and raised goats and chickens.
“She was literally raised in a garden,” Sammons said.
In 2005 as a 20-something, she moved back to her birthplace.
“She thought she could heal Bakersfield,” said her younger sister, Cambria Beeson.
Bakersfield was and is a city with some of the highest rates of poverty, obesity and diabetes in the state.
“She originally thought to improve our hometown for her children and family,” Cambria Beeson said.
Amber Beeson spearheaded the development of a school garden at William Penn Elementary in the Oleander area, where her twin sons attended. She wanted to help people lead healthier lifestyles and gain a deeper awareness and connection to nature.
Beeson was always about planting seeds, literally and figuratively, and she didn’t mind working in some of Bakersfield’s roughest neighborhoods.
