Fertile Ground Community Center is a nonprofit learning center for sustainable living practices. It promotes organic gardening, resource sharing, energy efficiency and community building through demonstration and hands-on education. Fertile Ground provides a library, a meeting space, a neighborhood compost system and a variety of educational programs for the people of Olympia. For travelers, the Center provides “green lodging” which includes organic cotton bedding, environmental cleaning practices, and organic breakfasts. Lodging is especially designed to accommodate artists-in-residence or people who are visiting Olympia to attend educational events.
 
Fertile Ground Community Center also serves as a demonstration site for urban sustainability. The demonstration site uses Permaculture design principles and applications. Space is provided for classes, events, and meetings. The Center provides the community with access to information on sustainable agriculture, ecological building, environmental and health issues, social change, non-violent communication and community development.
 
Resources available onsite include: composting toilet, sauna and shower, cob oven, organic gardens, food preparation/preservation equipment, multi-media equipment, musical instruments and other raw materials useful for generating income for small businesses.
 

Project Goals

Current Project Details

Bios

Karen Nelson moved to Olympia in 1964 and graduated from Olympia High. She married two weeks after graduation and gave birth to two daughters in 13 months. Between 1971 and 1985 she helped renovate two home sites, one in an urban environment and the other on a 12-acre small farm with a garden, orchards and animals. She studied permaculture design, developed a production pottery business and worked with developmentally delayed adults and children.
 
After completing studies in accounting and computer programming, she held positions with IBM and the Legislative Information Service Center as a help desk consultant and software trainer. Her interests later led her to interior and landscape design projects in Washington, New Jersey and Vermont. She produced several short documentary pieces for individuals and Public Access Television.
 
She completed coursework in Transformational Therapy at the Heartwood Institute in Garberville, CA.  Her studies included Polarity Therapy, Chinese 5 Element Theory and Jin Shin Do, several forms of hypnotherapy, breath work, movement and art therapy.
 
Since1997, she and Gail Sullivan have partnered with other non-profits and local businesses to implement a series of community workshops focused on creating a resilient community.  In 1999 the two started a multi-media business called Stone Soup Media. In 2000 they opened the first “green lodging” establishment in Olympia, Fertile Ground Guesthouse.
 
Karen is currently studying music theory, composition and performance through the Associated Boards of the Royal School of Music in London.  

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Gail Sullivan moved to Olympia in 1996 after a 6-month search for the perfect place to put down permanent roots. After 20 years of living in Oklahoma she was ready for something that felt more like home. During the 20 year Oklahoma sentence she managed to raise a son, raise a few gardens, raise hell and earn advanced degrees from the University of Oklahoma in Library and Information Science and Educational Technology.
 
A co-owner of the Fertile Ground Guesthouse and Stone Soup Media, she works at home and spends her time between caring for the 100-year-old home site and creating fresh new web sites. Active with Sound Exchange local currency project, TULIP (Thurston Union for Low Income People) Cooperative Credit Union, and Enterprise for Equity, Gail has found ways to express her concern for economic justice in our community. She is currently on the board of the Olympia Food Co-op.