When institutions have big milestones, like the 100th birthday of the UBC Botanical Garden, the anniversary can seem intangible. What exactly is being celebrated and why?
The Garden Days event I helped to organize on the weekend of June 17-19 gave me a small taste of what it takes for an institution to endure 100 years. As an international relations and creative writing student with little botany background, I consider myself to be on the outside looking in, like many of our Garden guests.
The theme of the birthday party was a tea party. It was refined yet laid-back with a botanical twist. Guests were served cupcakes on mismatched fine china. They were invited to sit at a harvest table that was adorned with miniature bouquets and tree cuttings. There was a certain calm happiness that radiated from the event.
For me, this long table is what defined the event. All weekend, people sat outside enjoying cake, tea, classical violin and guitar. Families, friends, volunteers and staff bonded over sunshine, treats and most of all the beauty of the Garden.
Community partners were invited to inform the community about life outdoors. I saw the Environmental Youth Alliance, Sharon Hanna, WildResearch and National Forest Week engage with families about bees, food plants, butterflies and trees. I created a nature search activity and I saw kids inspecting plants and insects with concentration. I saw the community coming together over the Garden.
At the moment, I’m working on a timeline to record all the significant expeditions of the last 100 years. I’m discovering how far and wide the impact of the Garden really is. I realize it is important to recognize the big players, milestones and achievements of an institution. However, seeing our staff, volunteers, and Garden guests connect at this event showed me what history often misses – the small moments of fun, inspiration and community that institutions can create.
Even though the participants of the event will not find their names in the history books when the UBC Botanical Garden looks back to our time period in 2116, it is these small players that keep the Botanical Garden running on a day-to-day basis and help contribute to what makes the Botanical Garden great. After all, the first curator John Davidson sourced the identification of BC native plants with the help of educators from all over the province. The community coming together to make the Garden a success has been there from the beginning.
As I look at back on the last 100 years of UBC Botanical Garden, I will appreciate all the successes – from saving a plant from extinction to making a connection with a stranger over a cupcake.
Submitted by Isabella Laird, Young Canada Works Heritage Summer Student, July 20, 2016