SaltWire E-Edition

Bettering the community

Enactus members construct greenhouse for Riverview residents

ADAM MACINNIS THE NEWS adam.macinnis @ngnews.ca @ngnews

It’s not often you see social services, business admin, office admin and carpentry students working side-byside on a project. But such was the case Friday, Nov. 25 at Riverview Home in Riverton.

Modeled after an awardwinning project completed by the Enactus NSCC Pictou Campus at Roots for Youth in New Glasgow in 2017, Enactus Pictou Campus spent the day building a greenhouse at Riverview Home in an effort to address food insecurity, mental health and productive employment.

Gina Fagan is the faculty advisor for the local Enactus club. Enactus, she explains is a volunteer group that strives to accomplish the 17 goals of the United Nations including addressing issues like poverty and food insecurity.

“We look for projects that we can do as a group that better the community,” Fagan said. “It gives students volunteer experience and entrepreneurial experience.”

To help fund the project Enactus student members organized

a fundraiser in the spring of 2022 that involved selling paper tulips which included an acknowledgment of loved ones and were displayed throughout the campus. This event was to bring awareness to the project and encourage volunteers to get involved.

The NSCC carpentry program played a major part in the project. Students constructed most of the building on-site at the Stellarton school. It was then disassembled and transported to Riverview where Enactus Pictou Campus members and carpentry students worked together to reassemble it.

Alex Mediavilla was helping with the construction and said it’s a great opportunity for students to learn but also help the community.

“It’s like killing two birds with one stone,” he said.

He said by prebuilding it at the school and disassembling

it they were able to avoid a lot of the work on-site and instead they could just piece it together like Lego.

“The whole class was involved in the construction of it and then a smaller group of us are involved in coming over and helping assemble it together,” Mediavilla said.

Fagan hopes that it will provide many benefits to the residents of Riverview including recreational and economic opportunities.

“A greenhouse is a great warm, beautiful place to come for your mental health and well-being,” she said.

Brittany Bowden is an office admin student at the NSCC and said this is her first time being involved with a project like this. She said it was nice to be able to make connections with others.

“It makes it really easy to be part of projects that are helping the community,” she said.

Nduka Ahilaka is a sociology student at the NSCC and copresident of the NSCC Pictou Enactus.

“This project is a project that has given students from different programs the chance to come together as a team with their specializations and as well as passions and compassion for humanity,” he said. “They have volunteered their time, efforts and even resources to come for the construction of this greenhouse. It's a wonderful experience for students.”

While there are many benefits for all in a project like this, he hopes most of all it helps promote empathy.

“I think that's what the world is all about," he said. "When you empathize with people, they are able to trust you.”

Front Page

en-ca

2022-12-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://saltwire.pressreader.com/article/281479280434996

SaltWire Network