SKC employees serve their community
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ELMO — The afternoon sun rose high in the cloudless sky, casting sparkles across the cerulean waters of Flathead Lake. Usually on a beautiful day, Mary Big Bow would find herself inside at work, typing away on a computer. But today, the social work teacher from Salish Kootenai College is outside, her fingers spread over soil rather than a keyboard.
“Oh, this is great,” Big Bow said, shortly after tamping down soil using a roller at a community garden in Elmo.
She joined more than 100 SKC employees in Community Service Day at the college on May 11.
Across the Flathead Indian Reservation, SKC employees performed community services from picking up trash to walking dogs.
“The idea is to have staff engage with the community outside of the school,” said Virgil Dupuis, extension director at SKC.
One group headed north to till and plant the oldest community garden in the area. Dawn Thomas, greenhouse manager, guided the gardeners in planting peas, carrots, corn and herbs in the garden run by Susan Antiste, botanist for the Kootenai Culture Committee.
About 10 years ago, Antiste started the garden as a way to provide food for single parents and elders. Now there are seven community gardens across the reservation. The garden in Arlee grew enough food to feed 500 people last year.
“And that’s just one garden,” Thomas said.
“I never gardened before until I started this,” Antiste said. “Last year, I said I was going to quit, but here I am. Every year, I’m going to quit, but someone always asks, ‘When are you going to start the garden?’”
At 77, Antiste said she has trouble stooping over the rows, and though the extension office often helps her out, today she had a crew of gardeners.
“This is my gardening for the year,” said Tim Olson, an engineering, physics and astronomy professor at the college.
Thomas said last year was a horrible gardening year because there was so much moisture. As a result, this year gardeners decided to create mounds of dirt to plant the seeds, and in between each row they placed newspapers covered in straw and dirt. This technique is suppose to retain moisture and eliminate weeds.
“I’m just helping out the community and being out in the sunshine for the day,” said Josephine Lefthand.
