Raymond Loo was an inspiration for all of us in the Holland College Transitions program. Over the years he took time to take our students on many tours of his organic farm, letting them hold baby chicks and feed cattle along the way. Many of these students had never seen a farm or given thought to where their food originated, but they always responded to Raymond in an enthusiastic and appreciative way. After losing Raymond last year to cancer, our team wanted to honor his work and his dedication, not only to farming and PEI, but his belief that our youth needed to reconnect with nature and have some knowledge about the buy local movement. This is how the Raymond Loo Memorial Garden Project came to be. During the past year students from our Summerside and Charlottetown Transitions programs have participated in a variety of outdoor garden projects. In Charlottetown, our group helped establish and harvest the new Legacy gardens at the Farm Centre. In Summerside they built 3 raised beds and established gardens there, with all the harvest being brought to the Summerside soup kitchen. These activities confirmed our hunch that students really do enjoy learning in nature, despite the fact that they don’t often get the opportunity. Even those students who started out thinking it was “lame”, reported a lot of learning and a real sense of contributing in meaningful way to community. Innovation
The Holland College 2014 strategic plan asks these questions:
• How do we enhance the learner experience, academically and socially, for learners of all ages, at all places of learning?
• How do we continue to identify and foster strategic partnerships which promote sustainability?
• How do we model environmental stewardship across the College? This garden project will answer these questions by providing an esthetically pleasing social gathering location where students can take in nature and be proud of the direction their college is taking towards environmental sustainability. The garden will also “initiate an action that will broaden and strengthen the student educational experience by providing opportunities for a holistic educational experience while remaining relevant to industry and community” (2013 Strategic Plan). Students will be building the raised beds, designing the walkways and bench designs, planting, maintaining and harvesting the gardens. These activities will be complemented by having students watch short documentaries about sustainability and then blogging across campuses about the experience. The project implementation plan involves construction of two outdoor gardens, one at our Summerside Waterfront campus and the other at our Prince of Wales campus. Our overall goal will be to remember Raymond by carrying on with his work – encouraging our youth to think about where their food comes from, getting them out in nature and learning what it takes to build and maintain a garden. Have a look through our photo albums to find out more. We will be updating the project as it progresses, so stay tuned :)
