OLDS, Alta. – A group of Alberta youth from Olds make a habit every spring of getting down in the dirt to help others in need.
The 1st Girl Guide Company has planted and tended a community garden for six years. Members grow potatoes, onions, carrots and beets and donate proceeds to the Mountainview Food Bank.
Their annual donation of 600 pounds of produce received an international nod earlier this year from the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.
The 20 members and their five leaders will receive the Olave Award later this year at a triennium meeting in Scotland. A Canadian delegate to the meeting will pick up the award, which recognizes outstanding community service work.
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“It was a total surprise to us. It is nice to be recognized for your hard work,” said leader Linda Reade, who has run the company for 15 years with four other adult leaders.
The members are nine to 12 years old and come from Olds, Carstairs and Sundre.
The garden began many years ago when a Sparks leader started a project in her backyard with the help of her five-and six-year-old. An older Pathfinder group adopted it for a few years before the Guides took it over.
“It has been ongoing. It is not a shot in the dark,” Reade said.
Reade makes about 10 deliveries to the food bank once the crops start to mature, and the girls do a final harvest at the end of September.
Members receive merit badges and learn about service to their community and the environment as well as gain more understanding about the program’s international component.
Helper Shirley Lupino said the project also teaches the girls life skills. She hopes they will consider gardening when they have families of their own.
“Some of the girls didn’t know vegetables come from seeds,” said Lupino, who works for Olds College, which donates the 700 sq. foot plot.
The work teaches the girls how to prepare the seed potatoes, plant onion bulbs right side up and get dirty while doing a good deed.
“This is quite fun, actually,” said guide Lauren Evans.
The Mountain View Food Bank serves Cremona, Carstairs, Didsbury, Olds, Sundre, Bowden and Torrington.
