Wonderland Gardens is a nonprofit organization
developing a year-round green space destination, which offers individual and
group gardening, nature walks through breathtaking landscapes, fresh
vegetables and fruits for public viewing and consumption. Wonderland Garden's
components will include: community gardens, a cooperative gardening program,
an outdoor classroom, a storytelling area, Life Skills seminars, a Wonder
trail, lectures and workshop sessions. The Wonderland Gardens concept is
unique and appeals to all age groups, but the programs specifically target
recipients such as the following: seniors, youth-at-large, inner-city youth,
and Americans with disabilities. Wonderland Gardens is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
organization that is committed to stewardship of the earth through gardening,
education, recycling and communing with nature.
The Wonderland Gardens' founders share the inspiration
and the meaning of Wonderland Gardens.
Wonderland Gardens (WG) has been a
seed with in me, I just needed help. The loss of Kelly, my younger sister
and
my mother put organic fertilizer through my veins. The WG journey that has
taken place has been a natural one for me, thanks for my parents. I have
learned not to question why WG has grown so quickly, and just continue working
the LAND.
I have always worked with the land
planting flowers, trees, shrubs or just organic vegetables. Wonderland has
given me the opportunity to redirect the anger inside me and grow these same
plants on the historic Mathis Dairy land that cows grazed for over 50 years.
Just as the Mathis family enriched so many lives, WG is using this same rich
land as the catalyst for saving lives and healing some wounds.
I truly believe all people are on the
wonderful earth have the right to be happy. So when I see little people from
DeKalb Head Start or the Private Industry Program youth. Seniors from
Greenforest or community gardens from the metro area and hundreds of
volunteers from Hands on Atlanta walking through the garden with smiles on
their faces, I want to believe for that one moment, they are happy. If this
means growing vegetables and flowers the rest of my life to continue seeing
those smiles and more, THEN SO BE IT.
Sheldon S. Fleming
C0-Founder
I moved back to Atlanta in the spring
of 1994 and felt very unfulfilled because I had moved back to Atlanta prior to
seeing an educational non-profit that I had founded in 1990 come to fruition.
In June, I stopped by Sheldon's house to catch up and the discussion of
experiences led to him sharing his dream for a Wonderland concept and to me
sharing my non-profit experiences with youth. From that conversation, we knew
we had something that was unique and something special. We have learned that
Wonderland is bigger than our dreams and is meant to be in South DeKalb on the
old Mathis dairy site. I see Wonderland as a way of giving back to the
community that has given me so much.
I grew up two miles from the site that
we chose for Wonderland Gardens in South DeKalb. I grew up and my parents
still live across the street from Sheldon's family in Spring Valley. Growing
up, the Fleming children and the Davis children were all close. I looked at
Kelly as a big sister, so like for Sheldon, this project is in memory of Kelly
and her spirit is with us. As Sheldon has stated Wonderland was a way to turn
poison into medicine. My dream is for Wonderland be the destination in South
DeKalb for the metropolitan Atlanta community for healing the mind, body, and
spirit. I want to see the consciousness raised on the need to have and
maintain these types of areas and the need to relieve stress and to for
recreation not only for all people, but especially in African American
communities where more green space is needed to escape from the day-to-day
pressures. Wonderland is about bringing all people together to learn from each
other, to learn about themselves all while communing with nature.
Wonderland Gardens is a nonprofit
organization developing a year-round green space destination, which offers
individual and group gardening, nature walks through breathtaking landscapes,
fresh vegetables and fruits for public viewing and consumption. Wonderland
Garden's components will include: community gardens, a cooperative gardening
program, an outdoor classroom, a storytelling area, Life Skills seminars, a
Wondertrail, lectures and workshops sessions. The Wonderland Gardens concept
is unique and appeals to all age groups, but the programs specifically target
recipients such as the following: seniors, youth-at-large, inner-city youth,
and Americans with disabilities.
Each of the elements of the Wonderland Gardens
logo has specific meaning that relates to the overall Wonderland Gardens
experience.
Element
Meaning
Tree of Life
The connection between
nature and life.
Mystical Sun
The healing experience
that takes place at Wonderland Gardens. The mystical sun is located behind
the tree of life to signify that everyone’s experience is unique.
Earth
A green space
destination to connect people to nature in the metropolitan Atlanta area.
People
Youth and adult
participation at Wonderland Gardens and the connection to family.
Wonderland Gardens was chartered in
April 1995 as a public garden. In May 1996, Wonderland Gardens was invited
onto the old Mathis Diary property by Soapstone Center
for the Arts to occupy ten of the twenty acres that comprise the Mathis
property. The property is owned by DeKalb County and leased to Wonderland
Gardens and Soapstone Center for the Arts. Sheldon Fleming, Executive
Director, conceived the idea of the garden with the death of his sister in
1987. Working the soil was therapeutic and helped him deal with the loss of
his sister. Sheldon enlisted the help of long time family friend and neighbor
Michael Davis, who had previously co-founded an educational non profit in
Connecticut for high school youth, and long time friend Bettye Ludd, who was
an aide to former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson and a fundraising and
promotional expert. Wonderland Gardens provides the residents of metropolitan
Atlanta, particularly south DeKalb, an opportunity to get closer to nature.
Since ground was formerly broken in June 1996, more than 500 youth have
volunteered in the garden and over 200,000 volunteer hours have been logged.
The volunteer groups that have worked at Wonderland include: Hands on Atlanta,
Outward Bound, Bridge Builders, Project Phoenix, Uplift Group Home, and other
individual and corporate groups. Since June 1996, five components have been
implemented. These components include: Community Gardening, Life Skills,
Outdoor Classroom, Storyland, and Wondertrail Part 1.
In 1916, a sixteen-year-old Stewart
County Georgia farmer name R.L. Mathis came for a visit to DeKalb County to
visit his uncle's farm. During the visit, he milked cows while working on the
farm. He returned home to Stewart County with the understanding that he did
not like milking cows. During an annual work trip to pick fruit in Florida, a
gentlemen he worked with told R.L. Mathis that he was "too good not work to
work for himself and he would not get ahead in this world working for somebody
else." Upon returning to
Stewart County from the Florida trip, R.L. received a phone call from his
uncle about purchasing the farm in DeKalb County. At this time, all of
property was zoned for dairies and there were between 200 and 300 dairies in
DeKalb County. In 1917, R. L. Mathis purchased 75 acres of property and 12
milk cows that would later become Mathis Diary for $8k for 7% interest. The
uncle sold R.L. Mathis the property based upon his reputation as an honest
hard worker and his need to support his mother and two sisters after the death
of his father. As the only business in the immediate area, the DeKalb County
Commissioners has asked R. L. Mathis if he wanted name the portion of dirt
road, Wesley Chapel Road, led to the rolling meadow pastureland. R. L. Mathis
chose the name Rainbow Drive.
Over time, R. L. Mathis acquired more
land until the Mathis family owned nearly 150 acres along Rainbow Drive in
South DeKalb county. Mathis dairy became one of the most well known dairies in
the southeast. A portion of the property that later became Exchange park was
donated by the Mathis family to DeKalb County. Nearly 72 years later after
starting with 12 cows, the remaining twenty acres of undeveloped meadowlands
and pastureland of a functioning dairy was sold in 1989 and Mathis Dairy moved
from the Rainbow Drive location. Later, the lake and pine woods visited by
thousands by the entire metropolitan area community were subdivided and lost
to a subdivision. At its' height, the waiting list for organizations and
groups to have a picnic on the lake and pastureland was sixty days. Though a
subdivision stands on the land where the lake once existed, Wonderland will be
adding a pond and wishing well to complement the current pastureland for
picnics and community events. In spring, 1995, the Mathis Dairy building and
its remaining twenty undeveloped acres were sold to Kelly Jordan. Mr. Jordan
began looking for partners who would help create and realize his dream of
preserving a natural environment and green space. Today, a collaborative
effort between DeKalb County Government, Soap stone Center for the Arts, and
Wonderland Gardens is focused on bringing together the gardens and the arts to
create a unique South DeKalb destination for metro Atlanta.
The Early Days
In the early days, the closest
telephones to the dairy only came as close as Glenwood Road. The telephone
lines were installed because of the Honor Farm location, a federal
penitentiary where Perimeter College currently stands on Panthersville Road in
Decatur Georgia. The dairy provided customers a number for a lady who lived on
Glenwood Road to call to place dairy orders. At the end of the day, a Mathis
employee would make a horseback ride from the diary to the Glenwood Road house
to gather the milk orders for the following morning. R.L. Mathis would bottle
the milk and deliver the orders himself. Eventually, the telephone pole
installation was extended to Candler Road. R.L. Mathis put up his own poles
and ran the wires from the diary to Candler Road to provide phone service to
the dairy.
Dairy Tours
In 1952, J.J. Wade, the Mathis Diary
herdsman, provided the first dairy tour to satisfy Boy Scout merit badge need
to visit a dairy. To the surprise of the Scouts, J.J. Wade added milking a cow
to their visit. As the need developed, Bob Mathis, the oldest Mathis brother,
began providing dairy tours. At the end of a tour, a visitor would receive an
"I Milked Rosebud" button and a bottle of milk. The popularity of the tours
grew and multiple hourly tours were provided to accommodate the more than 250
daily diary visitors. Mathis Dairy expanded to provide a petting zoo and
picnic areas were added for visitors.
Rosebud
For the initial seven to eight years
of the dairy tours, the cow did not have name. In 1960, the Atlanta Journal
and Constitution decided to write a story on the dairy. A follow-up call from
the reporter to Bob Mathis to ask for the cow's name presented a problem as
the cow had not been formerly named. At the very moment the reporter asked the
question, the middle Mathis brother, Pat and his fraternity brother nicknamed
Rosebud, enter the office. The rest is history as generations of school
children and families fondly remember visiting the diary and milking Rosebud.
As Rosebud's popularity grew, she participated in charitable events, was
milked by politicians (including Former President Jimmy Carter) and
celebrities, and made special appearances in locations such as the Georgia
State Capitol, Stone Mountain, Merchandise Mart, and Alan Fund's Candid
Camera. Rosebud has the distinction of the first cow to be on top of Stone
Mountain and the Merchandise Mart.
Quality Milk
One of R.L. Mathis's goals was to meet
the standards to produce certified milk. Certified milk is the highest quality
milk produced in the United States. In 1928, Mathis Dairies met those
standards. Mathis continued to maintain the Certified Milk Standards, to the
extent that in the 1970's Mathis Dairies was one of three remaining dairies in
the United States to meet those standards.
Under the leadership of Jack Mathis,
R.L.'s youngest son, Mathis Dairies herd of Holstein bulls and cows were sold
internationally. The quality of milk was again raised as one of the top ten in
the United States. International visitors from around the world visited Mathis
Dairies to learn how they could produce Mathis Quality Milk.
To offer individual and group
gardening, nature walks through breathtaking International landscapes, and
fresh vegetables and fruits for public viewing and consumption
To offer the growing, different
cultures within the Metropolitan Atlanta community the opportunity to
celebrate plants and gardening from their native countries and to
participate in International festivals
To create youth and senior gardening
teams in order to cultivate and nurture a positive, back to basics
relationship between the two groups
To offer opportunities to Americans
with disabilities to participate in mainstream community education and
recreational gardening activities
To serve as a retreat for the
public-at-large, affording plush greenery to soothe and escape from the high
stress placed on residents within urban environments; serving as a "get
back" to nature hideaway
To serve as a safe place for seniors
to work in their own private garden plot and to grow their own fresh
vegetables and/or annuals
To provide a sanctuary for youth to
serve as a deterrent to unhealthy activities, such as drugs, crime, and
substance abuse.
As gardening is one of the most
popular leisure activities, Wonderland Gardens has appeal to all residents
within the metropolitan Atlanta area. The specific groups targeted as service
recipients include seniors, families, inner-city youth, and Americans with
disabilities. Within metro Atlanta communities, Wonderland will exist as a
center where organizations and groups can leverage programs and services.
These organizations include: daycare providers, school system community
service hours, church youth and senior groups, county recreation departments,
non-profit youth providers, group homes, summer camps, and exercise
enthusiasts.
2007 Pathfinder Award Recipient -
Executive Director Sheldon Fleming was the 2007 TBS
Pathfinder's Award Recipient in the environmental category. The
fourth annual TBS Pathfinders program honored individuals in the
Atlanta metropolitan community who volunteer their time and
efforts to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others.
2004 The Liberty Bell Award
1999 the Ga. Perimeter Alumni award
1999 Southeastern Flower Show
Atlanta Blue Ribbon Certificate Award for student participation
[Collaboration with Atlanta Food Bank]
1998 TBS 20th Anniversary Super Citizen Award
Sheldon Fleming of Wonderland Gardens recipient for poverty donating
vegetables to needy causes from 1996 to 1998.
1998 Southeastern Flower Show
Magnolia Garden Club Scholarship Award for academic institution that best
exemplified excellence in environmental education. [Collaboration with
Atlanta Food Bank and DeKalb High School of Technology South Campus]
1997 Fall Harvest Festival (sponsored by Atlanta Urban Garden Program and
Atlanta Botanical Gardens)
1st prize for largest gourds
1996 Fall Harvest Festival (sponsored by Atlanta Urban Garden Program and
Atlanta Botanical Gardens)
To build a dream, it takes first
vision and then friends who believe in your dream to support you and assist
you in making it a reality. We wish to thank our friends that have made helped
us and continue to help us in many different ways to develop our dream of
Wonderland Gardens. The following list only includes organizations and
individuals that have helped us build our dream.
Briefly, Wonderland Gardens is a
nonprofit organization developing a year-round greenery haven, which
offers individual and groups gardening, nature walks through
breathtaking landscapes and fresh vegetables and fruits for public
viewing and consumption. Learn about
Wonderland Gardens.
2.
What
type of programs does Wonderland offer visitors?
Wonderland offers programs for everyone
at all ages. The programs are Storyland (daycare/pre school),
Community Gardening (youth and seniors), Outdoor Classroom (elementary
school students), Life Skills (ages 15-21).
An individual can
contribute with time, money, or resources. One way to contribute
is by becoming a member.
5.
Where do I get directions to Wonderland Gardens?
Wonderland Gardens is in Decatur just
ten minutes from downtown Atlanta Georgia.
Get Directions!
6.
What
is the Mathis Dairy connection?
The Wonderland Gardens occupies ten
acres of the pasture where Rosebud and other cows once grazed that
once was famous Mathis Dairy in Dekalb County.
Learn more about the connection to Mathis Diary.
7.
What
is the history of Wonderland Gardens?
Wonderland Gardens was chartered in
April 1995 as a public garden. In May 1996, ground was broken onto the
old Mathis Diary property. Learn more about
our history.
Volunteers are welcome
at Wonderland and are helping us to build our dream. To date hundreds of
volunteer hours have been logged from a variety of different of community
based organizations. A very special thanks go to our friends at Hands on
Atlanta and Eco Watch for their support.
Some of the recent volunteer groups have included the following:
Hands on Atlanta
Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church
Eco Watch Americore
AET Synagogue
Lutheran Youth Ministries
Trinity School Service
The Temple
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Girls Scouts Troop #3917
Chinese America Leo Club
St. Louis Metro Campus Ministries
High Park N.C. Baptist of Plymouth
Boston U (Alternative Spring Break)
Tabernacle Baptist Church
St. Phillip High School
Atlanta Montessori
Warren Wilson College N.C.
Grady Outreach Mentally Challenged
Bethune Elementary Alternative School Special Education Youth
Wonderland Gardens believes very strongly in
recycling and promotes this practice through the use of different materials
used to develop the gardens. Some of these include the following:
Only organic gardening is practiced
Composting is actively practiced
87,000 lbs. of recycled concrete or recrete has been utilized for
retaining walls
3,000 recycled tires were utilized in the phase 1 ¼ mile Wondertrail
1,000,000 recycled plastic milk jugs were used for the Wondertrail
railings, picnic tables, benches
A ¼ mile extension to Wondertrail was implemented in the summer of 1999
Plastic performing stage for outdoor events- 100% Plastic deck and
stadium seats
and
my mother put organic fertilizer through my veins. The WG journey that has
taken place has been a natural one for me, thanks for my parents. I have
learned not to question why WG has grown so quickly, and just continue working
the LAND.
Stewart County from the Florida trip, R.L. received a phone call from his
uncle about purchasing the farm in DeKalb County. At this time, all of
property was zoned for dairies and there were between 200 and 300 dairies in
DeKalb County. In 1917, R. L. Mathis purchased 75 acres of property and 12
milk cows that would later become Mathis Diary for $8k for 7% interest. The
uncle sold R.L. Mathis the property based upon his reputation as an honest
hard worker and his need to support his mother and two sisters after the death
of his father. As the only business in the immediate area, the DeKalb County
Commissioners has asked R. L. Mathis if he wanted name the portion of dirt
road, Wesley Chapel Road, led to the rolling meadow pastureland. R. L. Mathis
chose the name Rainbow Drive.