Indian Family Centre project

The letter below was sent by Michele Visser of the Indian Family Centre.
The Indian Family Centre is a Christian Healing community which honours
and respects Aboriginal understanding of life with its gifts expressed through
culture, teachings, governance structures, and other aspects of life.
This summer the Friends donated funds and facilitated other donations to this organization to help them with their gardening activities.

Thank You!

With a little help from the Friends of Gardens Manitoba, the Indian Family Centre at 470 Selkirk was able to transform a bare, weedy patch of lawn into a beautiful garden, useful for teaching, growing, and simple enjoyment. Your financial gift enabled us to purchase a compost bin and other gardening tools, in addition to the five raised beds we received from Friends' board member Kaz Sawicz and the soil we received from Red River Soils. These unexpected donations really enhanced our ability to get our garden planted far beyond what we could have done on our own. The garden has already provided fresh herbs for the food that we cook here, and many teachable moments. I was out in the garden with two teenagers just as our potatoes were starting to flower. They were intrigued and asked if the potatoes would start to grow from the flowers. I told them potatoes grow underground and we talked about that for a while. Then we moved over to the watermelon, and they assumed that watermelons would also grow underground. I was surprised by what I would call their gardening illiteracy. These are two bright, motivated and intelligent teens. But if you have never put a seed in the ground and watched it grow, you certainly do lack basic gardening knowledge. Many people here have never owned a home and have never had the opportunity to garden, and so this space is now a delight for all who come.

On behalf of everyone at the Indian Family Centre, we offer you our heartfelt thanks.

Michele Visser
Indian Family Centre