The CMN Memorial Garden

Telos Training, Inc.’s biggest project to date is The Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden, which opened May, 2014, the 1st anniversary of his death. Yes, we were still very sad and a piece of our hearts indeed went with him, but his sons and wife wanted to commemorate his remarkable life and the lessons we learned rather than dwell on our loss.

After a great deal of thought and prayerful consideration we decided to create The CMNMG, a sustainable, life affirming environment as the perfect, living example of his commitment to holistic (spiritual, intellectual and physical) health and well-being. And the garden is one more way to fight urban food deserts and create greater access to affordable whole, live, organic food.

CMadison’s sons and nephews built the 38+ raised beds from 700 feet of untreated lumber, lined the beds with cardboard for organic weed control and then filled each of those beds with 8” of the 20 tons of organic soil. They designed and installed an above ground drip irrigation system and covered the 4 ft walkways between the beds with 20 tons of pea gravel. The garden is finished with 2 large composters, rain barrels, solar path lighting and perimeter fencing.

The garden sits in a formerly fallow field behind the Church of Christ of the Apostolic Faith, home of a 105+ year old congregation. Many of the congregants are 4th and 5th generation descendents of the original members and many more are descendents of participants of the great migration. The CMNMG taps into that cultural legacy of gardening, cultivation, knowledge and care of the environment. The garden also abuts a recreation center and a charter school so multi-generational learning happens in the garden and in community classes.

During the harvest season we hold a weekly Farmer’s Market & Bake Sale where we sell all our organic goodness for $1.00lb.

As he instructed, CMadison's entire body was donated to The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Division of Anatomy.