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A Walk on the Wild Side
Seniors living at the Sherbrooke Community Centre in Saskatoon have garnered community praise and international attention for a project providing the Centre’s volunteers with an opportunity to educate the community about the environment.
The Sherbrooke Community Centre residents led a project entitled A Walk on the Wild Side, through which they created community eco-trails and an insect/butterfly garden for the benefit of Saskatonians and visitors, young and old.
The idea for the project was spurred by the recognition that seniors have a great deal of accumulated environmental knowledge that is beneficial to the community.
“Older Saskatchewan seniors who homesteaded land have the pioneer experience of the native environment,” said Ramsay King, master gardener at the Sherbrooke Community Centre. “Their body of knowledge will disappear if they don’t pass it on by word of mouth.”
The Centre received funding for the project under the Community Partnership and Leadership component of the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program, which encourages seniors to play an important role in their communities.
The project also addressed the local need for easier access to Saskatchewan’s natural environment and wildlife.
“In Saskatchewan, you often have to go out of the cities to see some of these things,” said Colleen Grieman, Manager of Volunteers and Community Events at the Centre. “Schools, day care centres and seniors have to go out into rural settings to see the prairie or up north for the boreal forest. It’s wonderful to have these opportunities right here in the community.”
A major feature and achievement of A Walk on the Wild Side was the high degree of intergenerational collaboration throughout the project.
Seniors visited Greystone Heights Elementary School to teach grade five and six students about the project, and worked with them to research plants native to prairie and boreal regions of Saskatchewan. They then worked together to design, plant and grow eco-trails and build the butterfly garden.
“They also worked together to create collages that are displayed in the lobby,” said Mr. King. “The seniors have taught the kids to slow down, listen, reflect and appreciate the natural environment.”
“This project has also given opportunities for senior guest speakers from the horticultural society and retired entomologists to speak with young people,” said Patricia Roe, communications and public relations lead for the Sherbrooke Community Centre. “It was really important that these experts share their knowledge with kids in particular.”
While the program has done wonders for youth, it has also attracted a tremendous number of adult volunteers, who were taught by the seniors how to build the butterfly pavilion. “It was huge for the volunteers who came here to help build the pavilion and then see a butterfly release, because they didn’t know anything about it and how the butterflies got here,” said Ms. Roe.
The project also initiated partnerships and assistance from environmental organizations, academia and government and non-government organizations.
“The seniors have done an extremely good job of strengthening our ties with the community and building a knowledge base,” said Ms. Roe.
“Our institutional partners are serious educational institutions. This isn’t a short-term project—we are really trying to do ethical science, which is important to everyone who watches us,” said Mr. King. “There are the corporate donors, our board of directors and our community leaders—they want to make sure that we’re doing it right.”
“As a result, I think we’re a model for other centres,” said Ms. Roe. “We get a lot of provincial, national and international visitors saying, ‘Maybe we can do this, too.’”
For the Sherbrooke Community Centre, the future is wide open.
“There is so much potential in this project, and the opportunities are endless,” said Ms. Grieman. “We hope to add an Aboriginal component in the near future.”
“This project has really inspired our staff to think of new ideas and ways they can engage and involve seniors in the work that they do,” said Ms. Roe. “Seniors can have a huge impact in their community if we take the time to listen.”
The Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program helps to ensure that seniors can benefit from and contribute to the quality of life in their communities through active living and participation in social activities.