Closing the final chapter of their #NCstory, the ncStewards student club hosted a farewell event on April 18 at the Daniel J. Patterson Campus in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
ncStewards is a sustainability club created by passionate and environmentally motivated Niagara College students with the goal to promote and engage in practices that further the objective of sustainability on campus and within the Niagara community.
In collaboration with NCSAC, the farewell event involved a sentimental tree planting ceremony. Participants attended a short reception with coffee, tea, and baked goods where they watched a presentation about the club’s history. Following the reception, the group moved outside to the wetlands where a red maple (Acer rubrum) donated by the NC Teaching Greenhouse was planted next to the outdoor classroom. A small metal tag will be installed on the tree as a reminder of the club’s environmental efforts.
“We shared an emotional moment as we reflected on everything we accomplished over the past three years,” said Katja Odegaard, ncStewards Vice President. “We look forward to watching the tree grow as a legacy to what we set out to do.”
The club was initially founded in 2020 by Environmental Technician alumna, Lindsay Taylor (Business – General Diploma, 2021, Environmental Technician – Field and Laboratory Co-op Diploma, 2022 and Ecosystem Restoration Graduate Certificate. 2023), to connect with likeminded people during the pandemic and combat loneliness from social isolation. Taylor is currently the Director of Sustainability at the St. Catharines Downtown Association.
Over the years, the ncStewards organized a series of virtual and in-person events, met monthly for virtual meetings and used their social media channels to educate the Niagara community about environmental topics. The club also looked to leaders and mentors in the community for inspiration who typically worked for local non-profits that relied on volunteers for their environmental initiatives.
Some of the ncStewards’ core values involve sustainable economies and shopping. Throughout the pandemic, the club felt it was essential to support small businesses as many brick and mortar stores experienced less foot traffic and were competing with an expanding virtual marketplace. Partnerships with small local businesses included, {pocket}CHANGE, Garden City Essentials and The Pale Blue Dot, where the club provided discounts for Niagara College students and initiated gift-card giveaways through their Instagram account.
Katie Bristow, NC’s Sustainability Outreach and Engagement Coordinator who actively worked with the ncStewards, believes the club played a vital role in student engagement at the College.
“As we had to shift to a virtual format for engaging with students during the pandemic, the ncStewards were able to take the lead and provide content for students, by students,” said Bristow. “Having information about sustainability come from fellow students also makes it more accessible to other students. We are so excited to see the club’s growth and graduating members who are continuing their important work in the community.”
The club’s biggest project was the Pollinator Project, created to advocate for bringing pollinator species to urban spaces. The project started in 2021 where eight members began sourcing grants, making plant lists, acquiring materials, and developing a communications strategy to support the initiative.
A year later in 2022, the ncStewards collaborated with the St. Catharines Downtown Association’s Streetscape and Sustainability committee to install planters along sidewalks to create a habitat for native pollinators and help increase urban greening in the downtown core. To help kickstart the project, fourteen crates were generously donated by a local sustainable business leader, Adam Hynam-Smith from Dispatch. Additionally, a donation by Delta4Digital, in-kind support from Walker Industries, and a garden grant through the City of St. Catharines allowed the ncStewards to transform the crates into pollinator planters with eight different native plant species.
To activate the space, the ncStewards created a webpage with various plant profiles which provided a description of each plant, growing conditions, which pollinators would benefit from their presence, and blooming time. The club also collaborated with NC’s Indigenous Education Department to provide an Indigenous Teaching for each of the pollinator plant species.
More recently, the club aimed to provide greater networking opportunities within the environmental and sustainability fields in Niagara. These efforts led to the launch of Green Drinks St. Catharines as part of the Green Drinks International movement, which involves people who work in the environmental field connecting each month for informal sessions. To date, the club has hosted five Green Drinks events including a partnership with Mansion House in downtown St. Catharines and Land Care Niagara that hosted a trivia night to engage more volunteer support for their organization and encourage people to participate in Green Drinks.
The ncStewards club is currently in the process of a re-brand to focus more broadly on urban stewardship in Niagara. To learn more about the club and stay up to date with future updates, visit their website ncstewards.wordpress.com or @niagaraurbanstewards on Instagram.
