The summer solstice will be observed for a 10th year at Newton Medicine Wheel and PLOT Sharing Garden, just south of Newton Arena.
The Sunday, June 22 event will honour the memory of Newton Medicine Wheel founder "Grandma Amy" Eustergurling and celebrate trailblazers Don and Cora Li-Leger along with "all those who have volunteered and helped steer the PLOT Sharing Gardens and Newton Medicine Wheel over the years," an e-newsletter says.
A potluck is also planned that afternoon (noon to 4 p.m.) at PLOT, a community garden for growing broccoli, kale, bok choi, kohlrabi, beans, marigolds, peppers and more, on city-owned land at 71 Avenue and 137A Street. Check facebook.com/friendsoftheplot for details and photos.
"Your caring hearts and hands are making a difference," garden caretakers say in a recent call for volunteer help. "Together we are maximizing the potential bounty of food to help feed the community, and cultivating a warm welcoming space for all to enjoy and feel safe."
The days are numbered for PLOT and Newton Medicine Wheel at the site, however, as plans for the $310.6-million Newton Community Centre move forward with a 50-metre swimming pool, gymnasiums, fitness centre, arts spaces, library and more. City hall's project is in the preliminary planning phase, with design-build team selection expected in mid-2025 and construction due to conclude by 2029.
Hopes are that another site will be found for the community garden and medicine wheel.
Teresa Klein, a PLOT caretaker since 2016, urges people to recognize "the unique and positive qualities of the PLOT and the extreme need for places like it in our communities," she wrote in April 2024.
"Places for the community to gather in recreational ways (are) of utmost importance in my mind," Klein told the Now-Leader. "Unlike a more formal recreation facility, the PLOT provides healing service to the community in very organic ways. Based in an outside environment where folks of all ages are allowed to explore their relationships, to the earth, to themselves, each other, where they can express themselves freely through food growing, creating art, gathering in ceremony and in cultivation of ideas."
