A grassroots effort has a Camden neighborhood blooming with pride

A beautification effort was born when civic leader Ruth Perez met an artist named Estefany Rodriquez at East Camden Cultural Day in 2022.

“Miss Ruth said to me, ‘I would love to bring you in for what I have a vision to do,’” said Rodriguez.

The result is 14 brightly painted, flower-filled planters along the 2700 block of Arthur Avenue in the city’s Cramer Hill section.

This project was built with a grant from the St. Joseph’s Carpenter Society, a nonprofit that renovates houses and works to strengthen communities in East Camden and Cramer Hill.

“It’s basically about instilling pride in our neighborhoods and building them up little by little,” said project manager Felix Moulier, who lives in East Camden. “Every project is another seed planted.”

Launched by the Carpenter Society in 2021, the Better Block program annually awards three grants of up to $4,000 each through a competitive application process open to qualified local organizations or individual proposals. Projects must be site-specific and applicants must submit petitions signed by at least 20 residents of an affected block.

In addition to the Arthur Avenue planters, grant recipients so far have included improvements along the block of 35th Street between Federal and Mickle Streets in East Camden, as well as a pop-up park on a vacant lot near Davis School in Cramer Hill.

On Thursday, a committee convened by the Carpenter Society selected three grant recipients for 2023. They included the 1200 block of North 21st Street and the community garden at the Veterans Memorial Family School, both in Cramer Hill.

Students at Vets helped paint the planter boxes for Arthur Avenue, teacher and garden club advisor Denise Kaeferle said.

“It was wonderful for our students, including students with special needs, to participate,” she said. “They were making a mark on their neighborhood for everyone to see and be proud of.”

Kaeferle also said Vets “will be jumping in right away” and using the grant to expand the community garden in conjunction with a Camden public schools’ nutrition program.

“We’ll teach kids how to care for plants that beautify, and plants that have nutritional value,” she said.

With her niece, Marlyn Valentin, and Rodriguez translating from Spanish, civic leader Perez said she sought to make her block not only more attractive, but inspirational.

Thus the upbeat words such as ”enjoy” and phrases like ”we are family” painted on the planters in English and in Spanish.

“It’s a quiet, clean block with friendly people, and I want to make it beautiful for everyone, including the kids from the day care at the corner who walk up and down the street at 10 every morning,” said Perez, an event planner.

Said Perez’s son Ronald Estevez: “Before my mother does anything [involving] the block, she talks to every neighbor. If people signed the petition, they got a planter. And now some of the ones who didn’t get a planter are sad.”

The 2700 block of Arthur Avenue also has been beautified by 10 young Eastern redbud and Yoshino cherry trees provided by the nonprofit New Jersey Tree Foundation — a separate effort but one that also involved Perez.

Projects such as tree-planting, or planters, help to “create community and a feeling of ownership in a neighborhood,” said foundation program director Crystal Wessel. “People see they can take action to make their block better.”

Perez was asked whether a planter can make a genuine difference in a city such as Camden, where many people face enormous challenges.

“If someone is just walking down the street carrying a heavy load,” she said, “seeing these planters and reading these words can change their day.”