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Sowing the seeds of education and hard work

By B.L. Azure

SKC Upward Bound students kept busing weeding the community garden in Pablo last week. (B.L. Azure photo)

PABLO — The tribal community gardens are starting to bear fruit, vegetables actually. And the Salish Kootenai College Upward Bound summer camp students are starting to harvest them for distribution. Last week they were harvesting radishes - some nearly as big as a baseball -at the SKC community garden. By the end of the summer the bounty will include the usual array of garden vegetables and fruits as well as some herbs.

The community gardens program is a collaboration effort among the SKC Farm 2 College program, the CSKT Department of Human Resources Development grant and the SKC Upward Bound/GEAR UP program.

Mike Pierre said the goals of the DHRD grant is to promote healthy eating habits as a way to achieve better overall health and fitness among low-income residents of the Flathead Reservation.

The community gardens are located in Elmo, Hot Springs, St. Ignatius, Pablo and Arlee. There are two gardens in Arlee; one at the tribal home-sites and the other is on the Mary Stranahan property on Jocko Road.

Radishes of various sizes and shapes were harvested last week at the community garden on the SKC campus. (B.L. Azure photo)

The vegetables will be donated to the tribal senior citizens centers in the towns as well as Nk^wusm Salish Language Immersion School in Arlee and the commodity distribution center in St. Ignatius.

Emily Baker of Americorps and Vista said this is the last year of a three-year local food project program grant but added that it may continue of a new grant is awarded.

She said that gardening is much more than seeding, weeding and harvesting. It has an intrinsic value that goes beyond the physical.

“We hope the students see this as more than just a garden,” Baker said. “There is something spiritual about this. It provides nutrition for the mind, body and spirit.”

The SKC Upward Bound summer camp students come from all Flathead Reservation high schools. The students, ages 14-16 years are residing in tipis on the SKC campus near the Early Childhood Development Center and Day Care.

There are 45 students involved in the summer camp and they are split into three 15-person groups, according to Aric Cooksley, Upward Bound staffer. The groups rotate from various activities that include, among other things, high school and college educational classes, community service projects, the community gardens and traditional learning activities. There are also field trips and other outdoor activities throughout the summer. Junior and senior students in the camp can also take college courses and earn up to 20 college credits.

The SKC/Pablo community garden is located near the golf course and is producing produce for the tribal senior citizen centers. (B.L. Azure photo)

Cooksley said the community service portion of the Upward Bound summer camp includes development of a marketing strategy for the Ninepipes Museum. All the students toured the museum and each of the 15-person groups developed a marketing strategy that will be presented to the museum board of directors. The board will review the marketing proposals and pick the one they feel is the best of the submissions. The winning students will be presented with an award and some of their strategies may be incorporated into the overall marketing strategy of the Ninepipes Museum.

For more information, contact Michael Pierre at 675-2700, ext. 1063 or Patrick Murphy at 275-4941 or Emily Baker at 529-6207.