Saint John’s Marigold Project is rooted in a simple premise: that the seeds of good citizenship must be planted and nurtured for communities to grow.

 

Under its auspices, more than 1,000 elementary school students planted 40,000 marigolds in the city this week. Overnight, the look of historic Saint John has been beautified for the fourteenth time in as many years.

 

This is how you build a community – by engaging children and youth in making it better, from the street level on up.

 

The project began with local teacher and community leader Barry Ogden, and Bernie Morrison, of the city’s leisure services department.

 

They were looking for ways to beautify the city while engaging local children and youth.

 

From humble beginnings, it has grown to include 55 sites across two school districts.

 

The Marigold Project’s success can been seen in the enormous support it attracts, and the respect it has generated. Across Saint John, the planting program has been emulated by neighbourhood associations, include ONE change, which hosts all-age community cleanups. Schools have branched out from planting flowers to painting murals that commemorate the city’s past.

 

The project’s first student participants are now attending colleges and universities, while a new generation of students is tending the city’s curbside gardens, alongside municipal and provincial politicians and community volunteers.

 

With each flower that they plant, they are learning what people working together can accomplish, from beautifying a city to building a better province. Thank you, children of Saint John. 

 

 

SAINT JOHN – It was long past dawn, but that didn’t stop the colours of sunrise from spreading across Main Street on Thursday morning.

 

It was the 14th annual Marigold Project on Main Street. More than 1,000 elementary school children took to the north end thoroughfare to plant 40,000 of the bright flowers.

 

Thursday also marked the presentation of the first Marigold Awards, designed to recognize outstanding Saint Johners dedicated to helping local children. Debbie Cooper, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Saint John, and J.K. Irving, for his work with Partners Assisting Local Schools, received the inaugural awards.

 

Jim Irving, who accepted the award on behalf of his father, said it was “great to see all these young people here who take such pride in the city, planting flowers. It’s a great lesson in looking after things and civic pride. It’s great that (organizer) Barry Ogden and the rest of all these folks take such time with school teachers and young people to make sure it’s done properly.”

 

Cooper said the Marigold Project is a “phenomenal program” that has attracted worldwide attention. Earlier in the ceremony, provincial cabinet minister Trevor Holder, MLA for Saint John Portland, told the crowd about buses carrying cruise ship passengers slowing so the tourists could photograph the sea of flowers that have become a Saint John landmark.

 

Cooper said it was nice to be recognized for her efforts at the Boys and Girls Club.

 

“You certainly don’t do the kind of work that I do to be recognized. It’s all about the children and youth,” she said.

 

Cooper and Irving planted the first marigolds near the top of Main Street.

 

Then the children dug in.

 

With pop music blaring from the loudspeakers, marigold planters marched to their assigned sections and rolled their sleeves up. Some donned gardening gloves, while others let the dirt squish between their fingers.

 

“It’s so smooth,” Alexandra Collrin, who is in kindergarten at Centennial School, said as she rubbed her soil-covered hands together. She called the marigolds beautiful and simply said people will think they’re “perfect.”

 

T.J. Foster, a Grade 5 student at Centennial, has his own reasons for liking the Marigold Project.

 

“I think that it’s really fun because for once you don’t get in trouble for getting dirty and you get to help plant some flowers so the town looks prettier,” he said.

 

Hannah Adams, also a Grade 5 student, said marigolds are “pretty awesome” and praised their bright red and orange colouring.

 

“I feel it’s great for the community to have a beautiful city,” she said.

 

For some children, the annual event isn’t just a chance to get out of the classroom and get their hands dirty, it’s a time to do something they love.

 

Ashley Vicars, a Grade 3 student at Princess Elizabeth School, gardens at home with her mother and grandmother. “It’s fun and I like planting things,” she said.

 

Roughly 2.3 million marigolds have been planted since the tradition began in 1997. Planting has also spread from Main Street to 55 sites across School Districts 6 and 8.

 

The Marigold Project is designed to inspire civic pride and beautify the city. Ogden, a local school teacher and activist, started the event, along with Bernie Morrison of the city’s leisure services department, with these themes in mind.

 

“It’s another great day, another great year. Everybody was worried about rain and the marigolds always bring the sun out,” Ogden said, standing back to watch planters dig in.

 

He also plans on presenting the Marigold Awards for years to come. The awards will be displayed at Centennial School.

When Ogden first began the Marigold Project he knew it would be a long-term effort.

 

“We now have close to a generation of kids that have done this,” he said. “It’s going to change the community.” 

 

SAINT JOHN – Every June, Barry Ogden stands on the sidelines on Main Street while thousands of children plant a sea of bright marigolds on the north end street.

 

As the children plant the flowers they’ve been learning about since March, Ogden enjoys “a feeling of fulfillment,” knowing children are gaining a sense of community pride.

 

On Thursday, thousands of children will decorate Main Street with the orange flowers for the 14th year in a row.

 

The festivities start at 9 a.m. when children will parade down the street. After a ceremony, the planting will begin.

 

At this year’s event, two people who have worked with kids in the community will receive the first-ever Marigold Award.

 

This year’s recipients are Debbie Cooper for her work with the Boys and Girls Club of Saint John and J.K. Irving for his work with the PALS (Partners Assisting Local Schools) program.

 

“We have to say ‘thank you’ more in our community and I think we have to encourage more goodness,” said Ogden, who created the award.

 

“By saying thank you sometimes, that really encourages good things to happen.”

 

Children will present the award to Cooper and Irving and the award itself will reside in Centennial School, where the Marigold tradition was started by Ogden and City of Saint John leisure services commissioner Bernie Morrison in 1997.

 

Since then, about 2.3 million marigolds have been planted and the project has spread to 55 sites across school districts 6 and 8.

 

“We’re promoting the whole idea that we’re not just growing marigolds but we’re growing children,” Ogden said.

 

“It’s a tourist attraction, it’s a learning tool, it’s a way to create pride in the community, it’s a way to create unity in the community.”

 

This year, the marigold project has spread to the Saint John Regional Hospital, where students from Hazen White-St. Francis School planted the flowers on Monday.

 

The partnership was a natural fit because the hospital is one of the school’s PALS partners, Ogden said.

 

“I called the Regional one day and just asked them if they would be interested in having a marigold garden.”

 

ONE (Old North End) Change will also plant marigolds at the bottom of Main Street for the first time this year, while Ogden is in talks with University of New Brunswick Saint John Seawolves quarterback Jeremy McAulay to arrange for a new mural to be painted on Paradise Row.

 

The mural that’s there now was painted back in 1999 and is starting to show its age.

 

The planning for the beautification initiative starts in January every year, when Ogden starts making calls to potential sponsors.

 

Hundreds of volunteers from Saint John to Sussex play a role in making the project happen.

 

Ogden hasn’t ruled out expanding his idea to other school districts in the province, but overseeing the marigold project at 55 sites already takes 10 months of work a year.

 

Even though the project requires a lot of work, Ogden can’t help but be amazed by how much his idea continues to grow.

 

“When you say Marigolds, people smile,” he said. “I think it’s really helping to change the community.” 

Mon Jun 6 2011
Page: C4
Section: City
Byline: KARISSA DONKIN TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL

 

SAINT JOHN – After putting 25 years worth of work and money into building a 90-by-65-foot replica of the Marco Polo, Barry Ogden is frustrated with how long it is taking to find it a home.

 

The freshly painted clipper ship, which will never see water, only needs a mast and bowsprit to be finished.

 

“I’m a very patient person, you have to be when you put projects together, but it does take a long time in this community to make things happen,” Ogden said.

 

“You don’t ever want to give up but it does get very frustrating.”

 

The ship is under shrink wrap at a west side storage facility, but the model was only supposed to stay there until last Tuesday.

 

“We are under pressure to move. The people are being very nice to us,” Ogden said.

 

Enterprise Saint John and Uptown Saint John are supposed to conduct a study that will identify potential sites and address ownership issues, said Enterprise Saint John CEO Steve Carson.

 

The study was supposed to be complete by the end of the winter, but Carson says they need to wait for funding before they can even begin the study.

 

Enterprise Saint John and Uptown Saint John have applied to the Regional Development Corporation, a provincial crown corporation that co-ordinates regional and economic development initiatives, for money to conduct the study.

 

But the executive director of Uptown Saint John says the group isn’t getting very far.

 

“We were looking to the province to help cost-share in the project and unfortunately it doesn’t look like they will be doing that anytime soon,” Peter Asimakos said.

 

“We’re now going to discuss how we may be able to facilitate this as partner organizations.”

 

Saint John Portland MLA and Minister of Tourism and Parks Trevor Holder said he’s been in discussions with Ogden and Enterprise Saint John on the Marco Polo, but he hasn’t spoke to them recently.

 

“I’ve indicated to them I will continue to work with them to try and find a solution,” Holder said.

 

“If we can be part of the solution, we will be. I certainly have some calls in around government that could be helpful down the road.”

 

The replica is an important piece of the Bay of Fundy story the province is trying to market, the minister said.

A company that specializes in moving large loads has offered to move the boat for free once the ship has a home.

 

Ogden suggests the city needs to adopt more of a can-do attitude.

 

“I know we don’t like to be compared to Moncton but they definitely have a can-do attitude,” he said.

 

“What I find in this community is there’s two things that hold us back – negative attitudes and division.”