About 175 shoppers streamed through the annual Beauty and the Beets sale at 10 Carden Saturday, digging deep into their pockets to purchase organic preserves and beauty products, handmade by local students and in support of The Julien Project.
The event is a culmination of a growing season’s worth of bounty – starting with seeds planted by special needs students from various local elementary schools in the spring; continuing into the fall as high school students from St. John Bosco and St. James learn how to harvest, preserve and make the products' and wrapped up with labels and packaging created by Grade 12 Media Arts students, who also gain skills in marketing and selling the products at the sale in early winter.
Edible products sold include the popular pickled beets, rainbow carrots and herbal jellies, as well as all-natural beauty products like the exquisite-smelling bath scrubs, hand salves and lip balms.
All funds raised support therapeutic gardening programs, typically run for marginalized youth with special needs, at The Julien Project, a community-based, charitable organization that runs and grows from the fertile grounds of Orchard Park, Ignatius Jesuit Centre, in Guelph. Scotiabank has promised it will match all proceeds earned at this year’s Beauty and the Beets sale.
Anna Kroetsch, Horticultural Therapy Technician and Project Manager, says the concept allows participants to feel proud of the products they have made by hand and learn a little about entrepreneurship at the same time.
“These students have grown the products from seeds in the spring, harvested them in the fall and then learned how to preserve, market and sell all of the organic products they have made,” says Kroetsch, who has been leading workshops and therapy programs at The Julien Project for the last three years.
“I’ve seen students who are despondent, reluctant and even aggressive become so interested in the project that they, for the first time, consider further education based on their experience with us,” Kroetsch said.
“Seeing them engaged in something that is community oriented – that really lights them up – is very rewarding.”
Katrina Musselman teaches Leadership and Peer Support and Media Arts at St. James High School; it’s the second year she’s involved her grade 9 to 12 students with The Julien Project through a special leadership program she helped develop for them with past project manager Rachel Farahbakhsh.
“My students have really enjoyed being a part of the program,” says Musselman. “I have been surprised by their sense of curiosity as they dug up vegetables for [stone] soup and by their eagerness to know what they would be doing next.”
She says the relaxing, productive atmosphere during the workshops at Orchard Park workshops bring laughter and a great sense of accomplishment to her students.
“It’s a safe, inclusive place for my students to 'get out of the box' – the four walls of the school – and work together to achieve a common goal in a way that will support our community through learning about how easy it is to be more self-sufficient, sustainable and supportive to fulfil a need,” Musselman says.
Products are still available at http://thejulienproject.org.
