OFRE values the importance of togetherness; a vibrant community strengthens all of us. For OFRE, community is defined as “a group of people living in the same place or having a characteristic in common,” or “a feeling of fellowship with others established by shared beliefs, interests and goals.” We connect with the community through events, and we interact with people who share the same interests as we do.

The micro-orchard we designed and installed at McCauley School is home to OFRE and its community. It will always be a guiding light to our mission, vision, and values. We take great pride in our space for it is a place to gather, congregate, and share. We are grateful for those talented artists who have generously donated their time and expertise in the effort to better this organization. As our connections are solidified, OFRE becomes more resilient to unexpected crisis and challenging alteration.

Excellence in Illustration and Design

We especially would like to thank, Jill Stanton, one of Edmonton’s leading illustrators who created our logo, and the high standard of excellence rendered in her work exhorted us to thrive as a new organization. We also would like to show gratitude to Justine Ma who contributed her talent for graphic design to the table we have in the orchard. The table required several days to optimum temperature without rain so the graphics could be painted, and a clear resin could be applied over the artwork.

We were honored to have Stephen Yettaw, an international stone sculptor, enthusiastically take on the project of carving our feature entry sign. The stone weighed over 3,000 pounds, and had been carved into a solid red granite. It took Stephen over a week of solid carving and cutting to carve our logo out into red granite and carve the text. Like how he had made all his sculptures, our stone was also carved at his mother’s fruit orchard — Flying Rabbit Fruit Farm in St. Paul.

Helpful Hauling

We also appreciate the help from Lee Grant, the owner of Fat Fred Hauling Co who not only picked up the rock but also drove our volunteers and our orchard manager Mike Johnson to meet with Stephen. Moments like that makes us realize that many people are great, caring, and loving; the community flourishes because of them.

Our orchard still needs improvement, and we look forward to collaborating with bicycle commuters to design and build new bike racks for the orchard. We expect something amazing to take place in January for the man behind the pedal powered apple crusher has agreed to work with us again! We also have benches to fabricate out of offcut glulam beams donated by Western Archrib, an Edmonton-based company.

Thank-you to All Our Volunteers

As we wind down for the season, we want to thank all our volunteers for their efforts in growing fruit, picking fruit, sharing fruit, and working as active members of the board. We are so grateful for your energy and enthusiasm. We will keep you posted on events for next season.

Step by step, we continue to build our community and share our stories to inspire you to find the fruit hidden in our city.