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Bruce Botanical Food Gardens in contest for funding By Liz Dadson |
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The Bruce Botanical Food Gardens, slated to be built on Park Street in Ripley, are in a contest for funding. Project co-ordinators Lynne Taylor and Heather Pletsch brought the proposal to Huron-Kinloss council in September with plans to create an edible botanical garden where scores of varieties of food plants would be on display for visitor interest and where community participation would be encouraged. The township endorsed the project and is now urging people to help the food gardens win funding through the popular Aviva Community Fund competition. The gardens are the only Bruce County project registered under Aviva's Large Project Class which gives the most highly-voted project ideas the opportunity to win between $100,000 and $150,000 toward building the project. Currently, the gardens project is running in the top 25 per cent of the class, at 73rd place out of 339 registered projects (as of Oct. 9). It needs to be in the top 30 to move on to the second level. The only way to achieve this, says Lynn Taylor, sustainable project designer, is for people to vote daily for the project. They can do so by visiting www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf11223 and placing their vote. Deadline is Oct. 19 for the first round of voting. Round two runs Oct. 24 to Nov. 9, and round three runs Nov. 14-30, with the semi-finals on Dec. 6-16. Registration requires that the voter enters only an E-mail and password in order to vote. Taylor is urging everyone to participate. A vote for the gardens is a vote for Bruce County. For more information about the gardens, check the website at www.bbfg.org Taylor and Pletsch, grant researcher and sustainable community facilitator, are inviting all residents of Bruce County to join in an aerial photograph to promote the food gardens in the Aviva competition, and future funding applications. Join the students of Ripley-Huron Community School and the residents of Ripley, Friday, Oct. 14, at 9:30 a.m., on the future site of the gardens, at the far east end of Park Street in Ripley. Be a part of history in the making! Participants should note, by taking part in this aerial photograph, they agree to have their picture posted on-line and in other publications. The gardens are slated to be done in three phases on about 10 acres of land. Phase one, on about three acres of land, is slated to begin in the spring of 2012, and will include an extension of the entrance road, a crop of sunflowers and a corn maze for income generation, underground tank for watering, lighting and drainage, and main walkways.
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Phase two includes parking, a second underground holding tank for watering, and more lighting, drainage and main walkways. Phase three includes garden construction and installation of standing stones and associated gardens, plus more lighting, drainage and walkways. A possible fourth phase would see a new washroom building added, and a new greenhouse/teaching area. Taylor says the gardens project will develop the potential of agritourism, edutourism, and the arts, increase community pride and participation, build on existing strengths and exemplify community assets, provide opportunity for skills and general interest development of all age groups and all levels of ability, increase cultural opportunities, strengthen community voluntarism, and address the concerns of a new sustainable economy by building community resilience to peak oil and climate change. The project provides a wide variety of programming opportunities, says Taylor, including a youth swap program, alternative building workshops, working with youth at risk and adult redirection programs, develop a major culinary program and events, recreational opportunities, special events, business development, socially-supportive projects providing fresh, nutritional foods, and potential for a Community Nutrition and Food Security Learning Centre. Scrolling stops when you move your mouse inside the scroll area. You can click on the ads for more
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