On a sunny spring Sunday afternoon yesterday, neighbors gathered at 78 Chestnut Street to give the Bayside Community Garden a name worthy of the woman who helped build it.

The garden is now officially the Deb Van Hoewyk Bayside Community Garden.

City Councilor Sarah Michniewicz kicked things off by picking up a screwgun and bolting the new sign to the garden shed herself. It is now officially, permanently, on the record. Then Deb’s nieces and nephews who were present planted flowers at the entrance to the garden.

Councilor Michniewicz, BNA President Tom Blackburn, and Deb’s husband John Van Hoewyk all spoke, sharing memories of a woman who gave so much of herself to this neighborhood — as a BNA board member for over a decade, a grant writer, a program builder, and an unfailingly generous presence who had a gift for bringing people together. Deb helped create the Bayside World Market & Fair, the Black Frame Art Sale, summer lunches at Unity Village, ESOL programming at the Immigrant Welcome Center, and was instrumental in getting the community garden funded and off the ground. She was still deep in the work of building the Bayside Opportunity Center when she passed away in August 2025.

To make it official, John cut the ceremonial ribbon alongside Deb’s sisters, Patience and Priscilla — a moment that was equal parts poignant and joyful, the kind of thing Deb herself would have appreciated.