Those giant scissors used for ribbon-cuttings rarely work, which was the case today at the grand opening of Western Technical College’s Horticulture Education Center, but it fostered rather than frustrated the partnership that spawned the facility.
Indeed, the grand opening also marked the unveiling of the new name for the unified effort among Western, the Hillview Urban Agriculture Center, Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare and the La Crosse Community Foundation.
Get Growing is the title of the collaboration's effort to instill healthy eating habits and foster education about agricultural practices to realize that goal.
“This collaboration is the first of its kind, bringing together educators, growers and a health-care provider who are motivated by a commitment to improve health and well-being of individuals in our community,” said Western President Lee Rasch.
“Hillview is not just growing foods but building resilience in the community and making it a rich community with the health system, education and gardening,” Hillview Executive Director Pam Hartwell said during the ceremony before she, Rasch and others cut the green ribbon to the $3.4 million building at 624 Vine St. on their fifth or sixth try.
The four partners in the Get Growing initiative “together have a mission of creating healthy food … to support the local food system,” Hartwell said.
The mission includes inspiring people “to get their hands dirty” by participating in programs at the center, she said.
Echoing the sentiment was Sue Christopherson, chairwoman of the La Crosse Community Foundation Board, a longtime supporter of Hillview and Western that also has provided a $110,000 grant to Get Growing.
“This project embraces our ideals — it is a winner … (providing) food for the body and the soul,” Christopherson said.
The general public has a big hand in the venture as well, as voters in 11 area counties passed a $79.8 million facilities referendum for six Western projects in 2012.
The Horticulture Education Center includes not only Hillview programs but also WTC classes, with a series of greenhouses for Hillview’s organic plants as well as the combination of organic and traditional agriculture methods and sustainable practices that Western teaches, said Peter Bemis, instructor and head of the school’s landscape and horticulture programs.
“We intend to have a lot of different segments so students will have a lot of different experiences” to help them obtain jobs, Bemis said during a tour of the greenhouses.
“We grow a lot of vegetables, annuals, perennials and grasses,” some of which will be used in the school’s cafeteria and culinary arts programs and others, some of which will be rooted in downtown planters and other locations and still others that are available to the public during a spring sale, Bemis said.
Peter Hughes, chief planning officer at Mayo-Franciscan, said the health system’s involvement arises from the hospital’s Franciscan heritage.
“The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration taught us to be great stewards,” Hughes said. “This is an extension of our Franciscan heritage and our healing mission.”
