K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist
The Jardin Éducatif du Pontiac hosted a community BBQ to celebrate its 35th anniversary on Friday night at its gardens just outside Campbell’s Bay.
The community organization, which helps youth in need by giving them a summer job on a farm, fed the hundreds of attendees a BBQ spread of hot dogs, hamburgers, and corn on the cob.
Some of the youth prepared salads with homemade vinaigrette dressings and an array of fresh vegetables picked straight from the gardens, only metres away from where the BBQ was held.
There was also music courtesy of DJ Erica Energy, a bouncy castle, and fresh vegetables for sale at the garden’s farm stall.
This year the BBQ, an end-of-summer tradition at the Jardin Éducatif, was an opportunity to recognize the founding and legacy of the organization that has become a staple in Pontiac life.
Litchfield mayor Colleen Larivière presented director Martin Riopel with a plaque celebrating the organization’s 35th anniversary at their Litchfield farm.
Riopel, who has been with the Jardin for eight years, said kids need to be given a chance, no matter their situation in life.
“All young people need help at one time or another. All young people have personal situations or familial situations. We are there to support them as much as possible,” he told THE EQUITY in French.
He said it’s important for kids to have a place to learn that is not a classroom.
“Yes, academic achievement is important, but it’s also important to have personal successes in life in general.”
After thanking some of the founders, the sponsors and the volunteers that made the BBQ possible, Riopel handed the mic over to the Jardin’s youth workers to give awards to some of the youth who this year, for the first time, were paid to work in the gardens.
Addison Williams received the leadership award, Landon St-Cyr the future entrpreneur award, Cameron Crawford the personality award, Mickaël Molnar-Belley and Gaïa Riopel the awards for best gardeners, Alex Bélair and Rylan Lévesque the awards for best cooks, and Laydon Lavigne the most improved award. Each award-winner received a small potted plant to symbolize the hard work they put in over the course of the summer.
Sylvie Landriault and Claire Taillefer, two of five founding members of the Jardin Éducatif, said they always gave the youth end-of-summer awards.
“We made trophies in the shape of tractors,” Landriault told THE EQUITY in French.
At the time, both women worked for readaptation centres for Outaouais youth in need. They saw that Pontiac kids they were working with had nothing to do in the summer, and they wanted to give them a positive activity to participate in.
Taillefer had somewhat of a green thumb, and pitched the idea of a garden.
“Gardening was a medium we could use to bring them together, and then to teach them,” she said in French, recalling her rationale at the time.
So, with $2,300 given to them by a community fund, and a piece of land gifted to them for $1 a year by a local farmer, they started the garden.
They used some of that money to hire a summer employee, and another chunk to purchase a bus, which they used to pick up the kids if they didn’t have transportation.
Taillefer found the youth took to gardening well, in part because agriculture was already part of everyday life.
“In the Pontiac, people are cultivators, so it was a medium that wouldn’t intimidate anybody,” she said.
Landriault said she figured the work was rewarding because the kids got to feel a sense of accomplishment.
“It was an activity that wasn’t expensive, and what’s more, you walk away happy because you can bring vegetables home with you as well.”
In addition to the annual end-of-summer celebration, which often featured a theatrical performance produced by the youth, the founders also took the youth on excursions, including snowshoeing and canoeing.
Taillefer said she has seen the positive impact the garden has had on youth. At least one former garden participant has progressed up the ranks to become a director of the garden, and a number of couples have also met in the program over the years.
Riopel said the work is rewarding, especially when he runs into former participants later in life and they tell him how helpful the program was to their development.
“Sometimes I’ll run into one of them at the Shawville Fair, or in Ottawa, and they’ll say ‘thank you, Martin!’ [ . . . ] I’ve got a job and a girlfriend now.”
All the proceeds from the BBQ will go toward Bouffe Pontiac.