Gathering garden

Area will let St. Amant residents and the community enjoy outdoors

Winnipeg Free Press
Wed Jun 1 2005
By Jen Skerritt

Colin Trent (from left), Dr. Carl Stephens, Bob Ford, Kathy Wyrwha, John Buhler, Bonnie Buhler and Michael Nicolas at sod turning ceremony to start John and Bonnie Buhler Reflective Garden at the St. Amant Centre.

WITH a permanent tipi, butterfly garden, play area and a fountain, St. Amant says its new garden project will help bring the outdoors to both people living with intellectual disabilities and the community. 

"We all know how important the outdoors are in daily life," says Dr. Carl Stephens, president of St. Amant Centre. "It also represents recreation and learning possibilities." 

Last week, the centre kicked-off the beginning of the construction of the John and Bonnie Buhler Reflective Gardens. Designed as a social gathering place for residents, their families and the community, Stephens says the garden's features will also help to develop residents' sensory skills. 

Stephens says the $250,000 project was funded from various private donors, and will be completed by the end of August.

St. Amant Centre houses 220 individuals living with intellectual disabilities, and provides support for another 650 families living in Winnipeg. 

Darlene Dyck, principal of St. Amant School and director of development services, says although St. Amant has a lot of greenspace, it is not accessible to individuals in wheelchairs. She says because most of their clients are in wheelchairs, the old metal play structure with climbing frames is both useless and dangerous.

"No one could use it," she says. "It's old, dangerous equipment."

Dyck says the new garden will occupy an entire field, and have paved pathways for residents in wheelchairs and a wheelchair swing. Dyck says 20 per cent of St. Amant clients are aboriginal, and the tipi and a medicine wheel will allow them to get in touch with their roots and become a place for cultural ceremonies.

She says because residents will be able to touch and smell parts of the garden, they will be able to experience new things that are impossible to learn inside.

According to Dyck, it will also be a way for the centre to welcome the community on their grounds. She says St. Amant still has the stigma of being a traditional institution, and says that the garden might help bridge the gap between the centre and the community to help dispel old myths.

"On a social level, it's a place where their friends and family can be together," she says. "It would also invite the community to get to know us too." 

John Buhler, one of the major contributors to the project says he and his wife, Bonnie, wanted to get involved after seeing what the centre needed and what they wanted to do. Bonnie Buhler says it's an honour to have the centre put the garden in their name, and adds that she feels the outdoors is something everyone should have access to. 

"We just wanted to put a bigger smile on their face," John Buhler says.