I have the great pleasure of being a story-keeper for the SLUGS program, ‘documentation facilitator’ I believe we’re calling it. I think that witnessing the evolution of a new program is as exciting as watching a garden move through the seasons, each week brings new growth – visible in the moment…or not. The arc of a program, or the evolution of a vegetable garden is sometimes better seen from a distance, through a series of vignettes that remind us of our journey, ‘oh my goodness, I can’t believe that we’ve come so far’.
This is what I’m doing here, planting small snapshots of the program as it develops and unfolds (and doing my very best to use earth-friendly metaphors along the way, you’ll notice).
This evening I attended the second ever SLUGS workshop, hosted by Nashira, Kim, and Marika attended by Jen, Kim and Caleigh, and guested by Steve, a Times Colonist reporter. The topic? From the Ground Up: Soil and Compost. Let me ask you something, when you think of the world’s natural resources, do you ever think of soil? I tend to think of oil, wood, water, you know, things that newspapers talk about. Nashira and Kim had a wealth of knowledge to share with the group, and did it all while we, the participants, had our fingers plunged in samples of soil from our own gardens. We listened to soil, we made ‘ribbons’ of soil, and we pH tested our soil. This is hands-on stuff. The 3 SLUG members, between 16 and 18 years, were alert, interested, and seemed to connect their learning with their own garden plots and plans. This is amazing – after a full day of school, to participate wholly in more learning takes a special kind of person, and a lot of motivation. I overheard the reporter asking what drew the members in to the program. The will to actually practice environmental action, to relearn the skill of growing food that we seemed to have lost a generation or two ago, to prepare for their future plans, I’m pretty sure the list goes on. I felt so lucky to share a room full of such humble passion and motivation. YES SLUGS, YES!
I look forward to the journey ahead with you all! (and by the way, there is still lots of room to join the program, and YES you can drop in when you have a free Thursday afternoon – what a dream ☺ )
~Leanna Platt
