For not less than the final eight years, Contemporary Roots has known as the Norquay Subject Home house. Fittingly presently of 12 months after we’re reflecting on our previous and searching ahead to the brand new 12 months to come back, we’re saying farewell to Norquay and embarking on a brand new workplace journey.
The primary time I entered the Norquay Subject Home was in February 2017, after I interviewed to change into the primary Experiential Studying Supervisor. I used to be nonetheless residing within the US on the time, and had come up for just a few days to go to my partner who was at UBC on the time, gather my model new work allow, and interview for this job. It was a kind of February days the place there’d been moist snow the day earlier than, and the sidewalks had been coated in a layer of slush.
Against this, the Contemporary Roots workplace was heat and welcoming, with its orange partitions, images of packages, cozy kitchen desk, and even stuffed veggies smiling at me. I’m positive I’m not the one one who felt that sense of heat and welcome once they walked by that teal door.
Since then, I, and lots of others on our group and in our neighborhood, have spent numerous hours in that caretaker’s-home-turned-office. All-team conferences, SOYL celebrations, camp recipe trials, First Help programs, and even a 2020 basic, the Digital Fundraiser have been hosted within the workplace, typically spilling out into the park on tables and blankets.
As a part of our settlement with MetroParks, we constructed a Sharing Backyard, typically partnering with different neighbourhood organizations like Collectively We Can to develop quite a lot of fruits, veggies, and herbs for park guests to reap and take house. (We’re happy to notice our successor is happy to hold on this undertaking and we’re hoping to help them in persevering with this work!)
We additionally hosted studying occasions, similar to our Artwork within the Park sequence, which gave pupil educators from UBC and different faculties the possibility to follow their program design and facilitation abilities, whereas offering academic actions for park-goers of all ages.
Our new workplace area on Industrial at thirteenth is coming alongside. Kindly, the earlier tenants additionally love shiny colours, so the inexperienced partitions got here with the area! Hopefully, we’ll have the ability to invite a few of our supporters to go to within the new 12 months – as soon as we end unpacking.
I’m unhappy to be dropping our kitchen area, however there’s a bakery throughout the road and many nice eating places close by. And we’re simply down the block from a few of my favorite Industrial Drive companies (shout out to Cross and Crows Books and Video games on the Drive!) And I have to say, our sundown views are fairly beautiful.
We have now been actually lucky to name Norquay house for so long as we did (our authentic grant was solely imagined to be for 3 years!) and we sit up for checking in and seeing how “our” park is doing.
We want the subsequent grantees one of the best of luck and lots of completely happy days forward!
