A group of community stewards came together on Saturday to pitch their ideas to make things better.
Ideas ranged from giant pumpkins to protecting birds from windows, and constructing free little art galleries to helping the city’s homeless population.
“The thing that strikes me is that there are so many people doing good things in their communities,” Coalition for a Livable Sudbury chair Naomi Grant told Sudbury.com. “A lot of the time they’re doing a lot with little.”
This year, the Coalition for a Livable Sudbury has raised $6,000 for the projects, and would need $8,000 to fund all 19 proposals.
Donations will be accepted until March 18, during which votes can also be pledged by clicking here or visiting any Greater Sudbury Public Library branch.
Projects will be funded in order of votes until the pot of money is depleted.
With all 19 projects viable ideas, Grant said she hopes to see all initiatives funded.
On Saturday, the annual Project Impact celebration took place at Parkside Centre, during which local community stewards pitched their projects.
(The full list of proposals is at the bottom of this story.)
Nadine Law and her son, Dax, presented their plan to deliver hands-on workshops to help people build their own garden ollas. The half-buried terracotta water chambers slowly release moisture into the ground for plants through a process credited with saving water.
Approximately $120 to buy, they’ve been making them at the Delki Dozzi Garden for around $20.
One of the day’s most unique proposals came from Brenda Verdiel, on behalf of the Whinnying In Life farm in Hanmer, which provides various programming for area special needs group home residents.
“We do different things every year, and this year we’re adding giant pumpkins,” she told Sudbury.com. “We’re not just growing pumpkins. We’re growing big.”
Why giant pumpkins?
“Why not?” she said with a chuckle, adding that they’re a lot of fun to grow as well as carve at the end of the season.
“They take a lot of care,” she said, adding that the project is primarily about “just doing things together.”
Another straightforward proposal came from the local chapter of the Canadian Federation of University Women, which presented a red dot program wherein people put a red dot sticker on their mailboxes to signal they don’t want junk mail.
Local community advocate Holland Marshall has been providing the city’s homeless community with buckets and toiletries to help prevent instances of defecation, primarily downtown.
Sudbury.com has written about this issue in the past, and found that city council members are not receptive to pursuing the creation of a 24/7 public washroom downtown.
Disappointed by this news, Marshall has been doing what he can to help out, and applied for funding through Project Impact to up his efforts. So far, he has provided nine buckets through the Go-Give Project.
Project Impact 2024 proposals
The following is a full list of this year’s 19 Project Impact proposals, as described by the proponents. Votes will be accepted until March 18. For more information on voting and to donate toward the efforts, click here.
- Manidoo Bineshii Dreams Plant Identification Project (Manidoo Bineshiinh): This project is all about community connectivity. During this project you can help make plant markers for the Manidoo Bineshii Dreams garden and edible forest. We will take a tour through the edible forest to identify trees and get inspiration for the plant markers. We will learn the different names of plants in anishnaabemowin and any other languages each individual wishes to share. We will have deeper connection to ourselves, land, and each other by sharing our lived experiences. You will also have an opportunity to add to the dream catcher dedicated to the every child matters movement and tie an orange ribbon with your personal message.
- Healthy Food for All (New Roots Collective): Our project is a vegetable garden located in Wahnapitae where we will produce food for low-income, underserved and underrepresented communities. We will also be donating some of the food to places that provide free food to individuals in need. Some of the food will also be sold at low cost to individuals that live in Wahnapitae because they do not have access to fresh food or farmer’s markets unless they drive to Sudbury.
- Herbology Garden – Learn to do by Doing (Sudbury 4-H Club & Westmount 4-H Club Community Garden): The Herbology Garden will be situated within the Westmount 4-H Club Community Garden beside the cozy cedar greenhouse. We propose a space for all to connect hands-on with the earth, seeds, plants, and water. With a sensory perception approach and an approach called herbology, people can learn & play, relax & heal, and see the connections between seeds, plants, birds, rocks and trees. People of all ages can book the space to do activities led by volunteers, or drop by to do activities on their own.
- 2 in 1 compost- water barrel (BBBF Indigenous-led): At the Better Beginnings Better Futures Community Garden, we will build a raised water barrel stand with a built- in compost on the bottom. A mural will be painted on the water barrel. This project will be used as a teaching tool to teach community members how to use resources in an environmentally friendly manner.
- Renewing garden beds at Minnow Lake Community Gardens -dog park site (Minnow Lake Community Gardens): We need new wood to repair and rebuild garden beds at our thriving community garden. The garden beds will be built by garden members and community volunteers.
- WIL’s Giant Pumpkins (Whinnying In Life): We will build 7 new raised garden beds at Whinnying In Life farm for group homes and special need daycares to plant and tend giant pumpkins in 2024. Participants will be encouraged to make a sign identifying their pumpkin patch. There will be a growing competition and everyone will be a winner.
- Windows for Wildlife: A Bird-Safe Campus (Laurentian University Environmental Sustainability Committee): Our project aims to reduce bird strikes against a portion of clear and reflective glass windows at the Vale Living With Lakes Centre. This will be done through artwork that follows bird-friendly design guidelines (no gap in the design greater than 2″” x 4″”). This art installation will be a mingling of art and science, bringing awareness to the importance of bird species and biodiversity. Anticipated outcomes include reduced bird strikes and increased campus biodiversity education. Ideally, the artwork will inspire similar projects across campus.
- York Street Tot Lot Pollinator Garden (Katie Hahn and Christine Caveen): Over the last three years, we have planned and prepared a small garden bed and planted a variety of native pollinator plants in the York Street Tot Lot. Our project is to make family friendly interpretive signs, in French and English, with information on pollination, pollinators and native species, as well as I.D. signs for the native species we’ve planted. Our goal is to expand this small pollinator garden over time. In addition to being ecologically important, the creation of a pollinator habitat in the playground is a great way for children and their parents to connect to plants, pollinators, food, and gardens.
- Twin Forks greenhouse enhancements (Ward 8 Community Action Network): Felix Lopes Ltd donated a 16×20 greenhouse to the Twin Forks Community Garden in 2023. Our project is to build work and potting tables in the new greenhouse so we can start some programming. We want to make this greenhouse open to the community, including to other community groups working in local food security and other community gardens, who can use some of our space to start or grow plants. We envision a community gathering space that offers workshops and other learning opportunities which is a place to connect neighbours and the community, where people can come to lean how to grow food and connect with each other.
- Ollas! Saving water and growing more (Delki Dozzi Community Garden): Delki Dozzi Garden Lead Nadine Law will deliver a hands-on workshop building garden ollas. The workshop will provide 10 Sudbury community gardens with the materials and expertise to trial ollas in their respective gardens. Ollas are an inexpensive way to significantly reduce water consumption and improve plant growth in raised garden beds.
- Four Lakes Community Association Garden Box Replacement (Four Lakes Community Association): Our project is to replace the three-level garden box at the Four Lakes Community Association welcome sign (at Desmarais & Frenchman Lake Rd). The current beds are unsafe and cannot be used. This will allow us to plant new flowers and beautify our garden boxes to showcase a warm and welcoming community.
- Azilda CAN Community Bird House Project (Azilda Community Action Network): Our project will include multiple parts of our community. We are hoping to have the woodworkers union cut the wood for us to make 20 birdhouses. Volunteers will assemble the bird houses and then local families will paint them. CAN volunteers will then seal the wood from the elements and place the birdhouses around Azilda. This will hopefully bring some fun and colour to our community and a safe home for our small birds.
- Free Little Art Gallery (Sarah Moreau): Inspired by the beloved concept of free libraries, our project aims to revolutionize access to art through a simple yet powerful idea: Take a piece of art, leave a piece of art. Just like the cherished tradition of borrowing books, our free art gallery encourages individuals to explore a diverse array of artistic creations, from miniature prints and paintings to intricate jewelry and whimsical keychains. All mediums are not only welcomed but celebrated! Our mission is clear: to democratize art and spread joy far and wide. The gallery will be located in front of The Okalita (601 Kathleen Street), where there’s plenty of foot traffic and love for local art.
- Louis St. Community Beautification (Live Love Louder): Our organization seeks to assist neighbourhoods in reclaiming shared living spaces with beautification efforts focused on replacing graffiti with murals and creating interactive games to promote active play. Our project will add pavement games and art, murals, and other beautification for the residents of Louis Street.
- Peace Pole (Violet Lanthier): I would like to erect a peace pole at an edible forest site and invite the public to its installation for a unifying ceremony and food to share to encourage people to talk to one another. The ceremony may include a sing a long … “We shall be known” may be sung once again.
- Birkdale & Camelot Tenant Association neighbourhood events (Birkdale Village & Camelot Drive Tenant Association): We will organize events for around 200 families and hand out flyers so everyone is invited. This could include beautifying the community which can help mental health, community cooking classes, or other activities chosen by the community. The little funds we had available for our neighbourhood activities was recently cut, so our Tenant Association needs resources to keep supporting our community with fun events, family activities, and opportunities to connect and learn together.
- New Sudbury Historical Trail Fire and Ice Walk (New Sudbury West Community Action Network): We will light up the New Sudbury Historical Trail with torches, lanterns and a bonfire, music, and more. We want to build community through an event and promote active living and trail use. We are considering partnering with a community group to provide a guided walk with a climate adaptation perspective.
- Camping Porta-Potties (Marshall Holland): Using 19-litre plastic buckets, I will provide basic toilets for tent encampments. Eight bucket toilets that I made have already been put out by Go Give Project and are being used. I would like to build ten more to fill this basic need at ten small encampments.
- Junk Mail Reduction (Canadian Federation of University Women Sudbury-Environment & Climate Change Interest Group): Our Project hopes to enhance awareness of a little known Canada Post program. By applying a red dot on a mailbox, Canada Post will no longer deliver unrequested or junk mail to an individual or community group mailbox. Short-lived paper products from trees have a higher carbon footprint and junk mail adds 1 billion pounds of waste to landfills per year. We propose to present to one or more local CANs (Community Action Network) and give them the red dots to distribute.
