Previous | Next 

Vancouver, B.C.
Students celebrate new gardens


The community of Grandview/Uuqinaku’uh School turned the sod on their ground revitalization project March 9.

MCC news release photo

The school, located in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in east Vancouver, is attended by children from predominantly aboriginal and refugee families. It has been the dream of staff, students and the community to revitalize an unused part of the school property by creating a space that will benefit both the school and the community.

The unused space will be converted to create community gardens for families to grow food as well as butterfly and hummingbird gardens, First Nations ethno-botanical gardens and a First Nations medicine wheel. A Longhouse Outdoor Classroom, inspired by the Musqueam traditional longhouse, will also be built.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, architect Tracy Penner talked about the unique way in which ecology played a role in the planning of the gardens. The word ecology means “the knowledge of home”. These gardens are an effort to return the environment to its original home. Planners chose plants for the project that once grew in the area.

Student council president Johnny Hun said, “I have learned that it’s important to keep the environment clean.” He spoke about the excitement that he and his fellow students feel as they anticipate the return of plants and animals to a restored habitat.

Sponsors of the gardens include Mennonite Central Committee. The MCC/Conference of Mennonites Jubilee Trust Fund was established in 1992 as a way to give substance to the MCC apology to native people for the suffering brought about by the arrival of settlers in North America. The fund is designed to provide scholarships to native students and to support native gardening initiatives.

The Grandview/Uuqinaku’uh School Project is the first gardening grant to be approved through this fund. The grant will help build raised boxes and provide soil. As well, Ecoworks, part of MCC B.C.’s Employment Development Department, has already built boxes for trees and will build retaining walls, bridges and more as the project develops.

 – MCC B.C.

Previous | Next 

Last modified August 29, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.