Through the Richmond Cares, Richmond Gives Youth Neighbourhood Small Grant, I was able to continue my Gardens of Kindness project for its third year. This project aims to connect local youth through card-making while strengthening our connections with the broader community by distributing the Kindness packages. Each package consisted of a youth-made greeting card, a packet of flower seeds, a biodegradable planting pot, and a compressed soil pellet. The objective of this project is to extend acts of kindness, especially when we don’t know what struggles people could be experiencing, and to promote local gardening.
Each year, I revise the Kindness package contents so that it can be more accessible for people to grow flowers. I added the compressed soil pellet to encourage people to plant in their homes if a garden isn’t as accessible for them.
This project involved my family and neighbours in organizing the card-making sessions for neighbourhoods. My project gained traction with the City of Richmond Parks Department, and we had additional card-making sessions for more youth around Richmond. My Gardens of Kindness project extended to St. Albans and Scotchbrook neighbourhoods, Blair Elementary, McKay Elementary, Burnett High School, Cambie Community Centre, Richmond Sharing Farm, Kwantlen Farmers Market, Aberdeen Park, South Arm Park, Paulik Park, Minoru Park, and King George Park. We received seed donations from Urban Bounty and West Coast Seeds to help provide additional resources for the Kindness packages. In total, there were over 320 youth involved in making 560 cards for our community.
Youth of all ages were enthusiastic about creating handmade cards, but a challenge that I encountered was that I had to ensure that each card was ready for distribution. Younger children were encouraged to participate, so I had to ensure that the cards were of similar quality to the older kids, which took significant time to review. I solved this challenge by modifying my approach midway through the project and kindly reviewing the cards as the kids excitedly showed me their cards. I provided some suggestions for potential drawings or phrases that the kids could write, and their parents were appreciative of my feedback as a learning opportunity.
The Kindness packages were distributed by youth in various parks around Richmond. It was inspiring to see the youth’s enthusiasm to contribute to our community. Most of the youth involved in the distribution had not done anything similar before, so this was a first-time experience for them. In particular, there was a girl who was helping with the distribution and was very hesitant to approach strangers. I encouraged her and her partner to offer the packages to a teenager helping at a farmers’ market. In the end, the two kids came back cheerfully and held pancakes and drinks that the teenager gave them as an act of kindness in return for their kindness.
This project has always been meaningful for me to see the power in community connections. Thank you, Youth Neighbourhood Small Grants!
