Learning/prayer garden instills peace

Volunteers transform Vital Grandin School’s grounds into a place of sanctuary

- WCR photo by Ramon Gonzalez Volunteers Sarah Kelly and Barbara Pacholok sit on a learning prayer garden planter.

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
St. Albert

Students at Vital Grandin School returned to a beautifully transformed landscape when classes resumed Sept. 2. What used to be a barren and bleak area is now a peaceful, prayerful space filled with trees, shrubs and perennials native to the St. Albert area.

It's all thanks to a group of volunteer parents, staff and students who laboured hard in June to create what they call a Learning/Prayer Garden to mark the school's upcoming 50th anniversary.

The project is also a way to honour the school's namesake - Oblate Bishop Vital Grandin, who, in 1871, became the first bishop of St. Albert.

The group of 50 volunteers, led by Sarah Kelly, chairperson of the school's parent advisory council, dug up about 2,000 square feet of sod to create the garden.

Peace and prayers

"As a Catholic school, we wanted to have a space that the kids could come and sit and have a quiet moment to reflect on things, a place where the whole school community can go and have morning prayers," explained Kelly, who has two children at Vital Grandin School. "It's still a work in progress; there are other elements to it that we want to bring in that will enhance the prayer aspect of it."

Future plans include adding benches and a pergola. "(The pergola) will have an open roof and it'll have a cross," noted Kelly. "We could have vines climbing up to the cross and it will add to the peacefulness."

In addition to poplars, birches and aspens, the garden features perennials such as sage and shrubs including Saskatoon berries and cranberries.

"The sage (planted beside the school's front entrance) ties in the First Nations/M‚tis aspect of the garden," explained Kelly. "Bishop Vital Grandin worked quite closely with First Nations and M‚tis. It's an important aspect of our school history."

- WCR photo by Ramon Gonzalez The sage garden honours the First Nations/Métis aspect of the School.

Principal Sandy Kordyback, one of the volunteers who gardened and landscaped in late June, is excited about the project.

"I think it's a beautiful, saint-inspired way of our being able to celebrate 50 years as a school in a school division with a tremendous history and tremendous ties to our First Nations and to our Catholic faith," she said Sept. 2.

The making of the garden also helped to strengthen the ties between parents, staff and students, many of whom also helped.

"We had whole families (working in the garden)," noted Kordyback. "There were children hauling grass, some of the turf and planting and digging holes, watering."

Curriculum-based plantings

Everything in the garden is curriculum-based, Kelly said. Students will be able to use it in many of their subjects, including social studies, sciences, art, language arts, religion and even math.

"I think the garden will help students appreciate the earth and what it takes for things to grow," said Barbara Pacholok, a parent and volunteer. "It's a teaching tool that will teach students to be environmentally conscious and to become stewards of the earth."

Thanks to last-minute donations and some parents purchasing trees in memory of loved ones, the cost of the project came down to $3,000 from an original estimate of $15,000. Rockland Landscaping, a St. Albert-based company, donated the soil, mulch, rock and borders for the garden.

Lonely to lovely

The playground once had just one lonely tree. Now it has several young trees about eight feet tall. Volunteers also set up wooden planters for students to plant potatoes or carrots in early spring. The section of the garden in front of the school was named Bishop Grandin/First Nations Peace Garden and the one in the playground Bishop Grandin Historical Garden.

The school plans an outdoor Mass in May 2009 to celebrate its 50 years and to honour its namesake.

Bishop Grandin, known for his efforts to achieve peace between M‚tis people and the Canadian government, died in 1902 and is buried in St. Albert Church. The Vatican declared him venerable in 1966.

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