Lennoxville garden seeks loving neighbours
The garden at the corner of Hunting and Speid streets in Lennoxville is looking for a few helping hands. After years of diminishing support from the original partners, the remaining caretakers at Saint Antoine Elementary School are looking to assemble a volunteer committee of five or six people who will help ensure that the project continues.
“At the beginning it was a project meant to include many different groups,” said Josée Glaude, who teaches at Saint Antoine and has helped oversee the project for the last five years. “We had Townshippers’ with us as well as the curator of The Bishop's Art Gallery; there were many partners. “
Although caring for the collection of edible plants has been a positive volunteering opportunity for some thirty students at the elementary school every year, their teacher shared that, for a variety of reasons, the garden has become increasingly the school’s responsibility.
Following the recent decision on the part of the city of Sherbrooke to save money by cutting back on the horticulture budget, that situation became even more challenging.
“Last year the city told us that we had to manage it ourselves and they would no longer provide materials,” Glaude said, “but as a teacher I don't have the funding for that.”
The teacher said that the community committee was the proposed solution; a small group of people from the surrounding streets who can be available to provide ongoing support to the garden itself while also helping to draft a project proposal that could be granted funding from the city on an annual basis.
“We're not looking for money (from the community),” Glaude added. “What we need is volunteers.”
The teacher explained that the students at the school will continue to be involved in the project as well, but that the garden has changed since the first cohort of student volunteers was in charge.
“When we started out, each student was responsible for one plant. They had to know about it how to care for it and look after it over the course of the year.” Glaude said, reflecting that now the plants are well established and the care is more a matter of general maintenance.
Anyone interested in volunteering for the new committee is invited to contact Glaude by email at glaudej@csrs.qc.ca. The teacher emphasized that the committee really has to be neighborhood - focused, meaning that members are being sought only from the surrounding streets.