February 2013
Parkallen News
World Wildlife Fund supports children’s projects in Parkallen’s Community Garden In this issue… • Meet your Community League • R eport from the University liaison • Hall Happenings • Parkallen Kids Corner • Classified
Student Griffin Irving and Principal, Kathy Toogood with Parkallen School’s new owl stuffie. Watch Parkallen’s facebook page for news on the owl’s new name!
Parkallen School has been awarded a Green CommUnity School grant by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Parkallen’s own Dr. Dan Slavik, an artic habitat and conservation specialist for the WWF visited Parkallen School this month to present a cheque supporting upcoming gardening projects, and to talk about biodiversity and his fascinating work in Canada’s polar regions. The classes had plenty of questions for Dr. Slavik about arctic
wildlife, especially polar bears. Dan also presented a WWF snowy owl stuffie for the school to adopt, leaving the task of naming it up to the students. Last fall residents and schoolchildren harvested the first veggies from Parkallen’s Community Garden. Kale, beans, corn, heirloom squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, pickling cukes and other edibles thrived in the newly created soil. One of the greatest success stories
in the garden was not the food, but the relationships cultivated between the community garden and Parkallen School. Classes of elementary students planted seeds in the spring, our community gardeners tended the seeded beds while the kids were away on summer holidays, and the children harvested some of the produce in September after returning to a new grade. (continued on page 2)