​Ripley Horticultural Society's "For Our Youth" Club welcomes almost 20 members

The Ripley and District Horticultural Society's “For Our Youth” Club welcomed 19 members to the first meeting, held Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Now Playing Family Centre in Kincardine. There was a great mix of new and familiar faces.

Leaders Rhonda, Brad and Kimberlee introduced their newest team member, leader Cheryl Scott. She and her children are avid gardeners and she is sure to bring lots of tips and enthusiasm to the club this year. Her children are new members, and everyone looks forward to getting to know each other.

After registration was complete, leader Kim led the group in a quick “get-to-know-you” game where members turned to their neighbours and asked, “Do you have your own garden?” and “What’s your favourite thing to grow/eat?” It turns out almost all of the members either have their own garden or have a family member who does! Potatoes were mentioned many times, although pumpkins, strawberries and peas were also popular.

Once everyone had a chance to finish chatting, leader Rhonda announced the theme for the year: “Cultivating Food and Friendship.” This theme has dual goals of encouraging members to get to know one another better while learning how to grow, harvest and cook their own food.

Last year, the children expressed an interest in doing more cooking, so the plans include trying new recipes as the season progresses. The club will be spending several meetings at the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens in Ripley, tending to its garden space, and the kids enthusiastically took turns calling out the types of things they wanted to grow this year. As usual, corn, sunflowers, strawberries and watermelon were at the top of the list, with a few new ideas, such as blueberries, cauliflower and potatoes. Rhonda took careful notes and the club will be doing garden preparation and planning at the April meeting.

The club traditionally uses its first meeting of the year to submit a craft or poster to the Ontario Horticultural Association (OHA)’s youth competition for the annual meeting in July. This year, members made flowers out of natural materials. The kids used a wide variety of bits and bobs from the craft bins, including cedar branches, dried lentils, dried flowers, cotton balls, feathers, seeds, stems and leaves, to make their creations.

With lots of glue, imagination, and assistance from the trusty junior leaders, everyone had a wonderful flower to enter into the competition. The leaders always love seeing the interesting ideas the kids come up with - no two are ever alike! All the entries will be safely stored until the OHA meeting takes place. Good luck, everyone!

Once the craft materials were put away and the junior leaders swept the floor, everyone lined up and headed to the play area to enjoy the climbers, toys, ball pit and activity wall. Thank you to Now Playing for hosting the club and giving the kids a place to run around indoors!

The meeting wrapped up with snack time and conversation. Leader Rhonda had each member pick a partner and learn one fun fact about that person, then introduce that person to the rest of the group before choosing an item from the Treasure Box and heading home.

The next meeting is a special one: March Break Fun at the Ripley-Huron Community Centre, Tuesday, March 17, from 1:30-3:30 p.m. Hosted by the Ripley and District Horticultural Society, this free event includes a presentation by leader Rhonda, a micro-green craft, and snacks and activities for the children. Everyone is welcome, but note that children under age 10, must be accompanied by an adult.