Library’s outdoor children’s space gets a bit more green
There are many benefits to having trees in community spaces including shelter, shade, sequestering carbon, and additional homes for wildlife, and the Gaynor Family Regional Library is now benefitting with 11 new trees and two new fruit bushes now making their home on library grounds.
The donation was made by Tree Canada in partnership with Selkirk Home Hardware and the trees came from, local business, The Flower Child. The trees include six new maples as well as two haskap berry bushes, two cherry trees, two apple trees and one pear tree which are now part of the library’s community orchard.
“Tree Canada has planted about 80 million trees across Canada, and they’ve greened about 800 municipalities and 800 school yards, and they have really been involved in the last few years,” said Mike James speaking on behalf of Tree Canada.
He also had some positive things to say about Home Hardware.
“Home Hardware is one of the Tree Canada’s oldest sponsors. Since our partnership began over 31 years ago, we’ve planted over 32,000 trees, and Home Hardware has contributed well over $1 million across Canada toward tree-planting efforts. For this particular event, Home Hardware has given a grant of $3,800,” he said.
Wendy Meger, General Manager of Selkirk Home Hardware Building Centre said that participating in community initiatives like this is something that they strongly believe in.
“We’ve partnered with Tree Canada and done several plantings over the last 20 years. We’ve partnered with the majority of the schools. It’s always well received, and it’s good to get the community involved, and it’s a good cause,” she said.
Ken Kuryliw, director of Library Services for the Gaynor Family Regional Library said that the library was very excited about this donation.
“We’re really pleased with how this partnership started. As you know, the library is looking to expand this whole area up to here into an outdoor kid’s area, to expand on our new 6000 square feet within the building’s children’s area. We’re really excited to have some of our children here who are involved in our programs to take part in this event. We’re really excited with the campaign starting up, and we’ll be looking at everybody to pull together to build on our expansion. The library has been incredibly successful. We’re the second-busiest library in Manitoba. We have over 150,000 visitors a year to our library, so we’re really excited about our ability to expand and meet the needs of our community and show what a valuable community resource the library is,” said Kuryliw.
He said that in addition to the benefits that the trees offer in the physical space having the trees also adds to what the library can offer.
“Libraries, of course, are involved in education. So, having an outdoor area opens a whole outside play area for kids and learning. When we collect, maple leaves from the new trees then you can talk about how these are formed, what they are, and then use them within the crafts in our programs,” he said.
Selkirk Mayor Larry Johannson was also at the ceremony and complimented the library as well as the sponsors who saw the value in contributing to this free, inclusive space.
“The library isn’t just a library anymore. It’s a destination point. People are coming here for a lot of different things, and it’s a privilege as (a representative from) the City of Selkirk to be able to be here. Thank you to the sponsors,” said Johannson.
Kuryliw also wanted to remind residents that the Gaynor Family Regional Library is a welcoming space. Library cards are free if you live or pay property tax in the City of Selkirk, RM of St. Andrews, RM of St. Clements or the Village of Dunnottar.
“We’re a really wonderful place to be. We’re barrier-free. We welcome everybody to the library, and you will find something of interest to you in the library. We’ve also got over 25,000 digital resources of full e-books online that are free to use with a library membership,” said Kuryliw.
