Living Ind

Jillian Johnson’s legacy will grow

The financial seeds have been planted for a Victory Garden park project adjacent to Downtown not far from where the designer-entrepreneur-musician lived.

Photo by Robin May

When designer-entrepreneur-musician Jillian Johnson senselessly perished in the July 23 shooting at the Grand Theatre, she left behind more than a legacy — she also left behind projects that need to be finished.

The Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority has agreed, according to a report by The Advocate, to help fund a community garden project long championed by Johnson, who was a founding member of TownFolk and Acadiana Food Circle. The Advocate reports that representatives of the groups made a pitch Tuesday to the LPTFA, which agreed to lease for $1 per year a lot at the corner of Olivier and Pierce streets near Downtown for the Victory Garden. The self-supporting LPTFA also committed to pitching in $1,500 dollars and to insure the project for six years.

TownFolk member and UL architecture professor Hector LaSala urged the LPTFA to embrace the project, saying that Lafayette owes it to Johnson, who “created community everywhere she went.”

The Advocate reports that TownFolk has raised about $3,000 for the project; the total cost is estimated to be about $20,000 to complete an edible garden/community park. Crowd-sourced funding may also be used to meet the project’s funding needs.

Read more about this and other community initiatives in the works here.