This post was written by Mariam Al Barazi our new PEC and FEELed Lab new Community Development Coordinator and FEELed Lab member Jamie Stevens.
On September 28th, the Ponderosa Education Community (PEC) and FEELed Lab hosted our first Plant People Gathering of the fall! We kicked off the night by lino-printing shirts with designs hand-carved by our community member Rowan Pickard (WITHOUT the power of AI 😉). The two iconic prints we used were for the Badger Revolution and the Beaver Resurgence. Shirts were by donation as part of fundraising for our work.
To this point, our work has been funded largely by a small group of committed members but as the work grows amongst the pressures of development and the layers of the polycrisis, we are asking for financial help from our wider community.
If you can support keeping this work going, consider making a donation as small as a black cup of coffee, (avoid the lattes, they REALLY are starting to give our wallets heart attacks!) Any donation will be impactful and can be e-transferred to team@ponderosaeducation.ca. And if you make a donation and want a t-shirt, email us!
During the event, Mariam Al Barazi, PEC and FEELed Lab’s new Community Development Coordinator, decided to go around and ask the obvious “POP QUIZ: What is the Badger Revolution?” Answers ranged from “It’s when people come together to recognize what important work and advocacy is happening on the lands they are settlers on, like today!” to “It’s taking down BigWinery!!! (Because the land used to grow the grapes for the wine deeply disrupts the local habitats)”.
We wrapped up the evening with Dunnenzies pizza, connected with new and longtime community members, and walked around some of the FEELed Lab garden plants that have begun to grow green again since the summer! We are grateful and in awe that even during the wildfire season, the plants have persevered. Native plants know what’s what.
