Gallagher Services opens in Timonium

Catholic Charities nonprofit campus highlightz horticulture program

Rena Daly says many people drive by Francis X. Gallagher Services’ Timonium campus and wonder what the organization does.

The gardens and greenhouses on the Pot Spring Roadproperty might signal a commercial nursery or landscaping firm, but that’s not the mission of this nonprofit operated by Baltimore-based Catholic Charities.

Gallagher Services works through various vocational, health and housing programs throughout the region to help adults with intellectual disabilities “craft and shape” a meaningful life, said Daly, a spokeswoman for Baltimore-based Catholic Charities.

At the Timonium campus, participants in Gallagher’s Green Initiative learn skills such as gardening and landscaping and maintain the campus greenhouses. Clients learn horticulture skills alongside experienced gardeners, farmers and representatives from the environmental advocacy group Blue Water Baltimore.

The Green Initiative is a partnership between Gallagher and other organizations, including neighboring St. Vincent’s Villa and Villa Maria School, facilities that, respectively, serve children with emotional and behavioral challenges and learning disabilities. In addition to Blue Water Baltimore, the Green Initiative also partners with the volunteers from the Baltimore County Master Gardeners program.

From the greenhouse to the grounds, and from pollinator gardens to rain barrels, Gallagher’s clients have the opportunity to learn horticulture through hands-on work, said Ben Mortenson, an employment specialist who leads the program. The initiative also stresses environmental and ecological best practices.

Mortenson said that for participants, the program is both an employment training opportunity and a way to engage in a fun and rewarding experience.

“Gardening is awesome and, in a lot of ways, therapeutic,” Mortenson said. “It allows them to get dirty, but also to learn.”

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Gallagher Services will open the Timonium campus, allowing visitors to tour the greenhouse and flower and vegetable gardens and purchase cut flowers and native plants from Blue Water Baltimore’s Herring Run Nursery.

There will also be demonstrations, led by members of the Green Initiative, on the use of rain barrels for water conservation, and at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., guests can tag monarch butterflies and release them, Mortenson said.

“We want to open this up to the community and let people know who we are and why we’re doing this,” said Brian Trees, Gallagher Services’ associate administrator. “We want our folks to be present; we want people to know that this is what we do, and we’re here, we’re local.”

Founded in 1977, Gallagher Services celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. Trees said the organization currently runs housing and employment training services for about 400 people, and works to individualize programs to suit clients; if someone’s idea of a meaningful life includes horseback riding, for instance, Gallagher Services will make it happen, Trees said.