Major Donors
Goldenrod Community Garden exists because of the generous support of people like you. Please consider donating funds to our Phase 2 Build and to our ongoing maintenance costs.
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Below are some profiles of some of the donors who gave $250 or more.
ASL Contractors, Sandro Ricci
ASL Contractors (Ottawa) is regarded as the pre-eminent local earthworks expert and a leading landscape contractor. This combination of earthworks and landscaping capacities is unique in their market and, coupled with their innovative, service centric, employee focused culture, makes them an industry leader. Company President, Sandro Ricci, is passionate about supporting the building of community gardens across this city!
Goldenrod is grateful for Sandro’s generous donation to the Phase 1 Build Fund.
Sandro serves his community, whether that is supporting Goldenrod Community Garden or Nanny Goat Community Garden or acting as Director of the NCHCA. In 2018, a huge in-kind effort by ASL resulted in the restoration of the pond at the Baxter Conservation area. It is now know as the Baxter ASL Pond where over 4,000 fish, frogs, tadpoles and turtles thrive.
Sandro Ricci is a proud recipient of the Ottawa Business Journal’s 2021 Forty Under 40 Award, which recognizes professional achievement, expertise and community service. Congratulation, Sandro!
Read more about Sandro Ricci and ASL here and here. More about the Baxter ASL Pond restoration here.
Just Food
Just Food is a local, non-profit, community-based organization that works on both rural and urban food and farming issues in Ottawa and the surrounding region. Their partnership with Goldenrod has been crucial both as a facilitator and as a major financial donor. We are grateful for their support.
The primary mission of Goldenrod Community Garden aligns with Just Food’s: To enhance ongoing access to healthful food for everyone, especially the food-insecure, in Kitchissippi and to strengthen community bonds through community gardening.
Maker House/Gareth Davies
Gareth Davies is the founder and CEO of the finest collection of Canadian maker furniture, homewares, gifts and crafts in the city: Maker House Co., located on Wellington Street West in Hintonburg.
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Gareth Davies and Maker House is committed to values of Community & Environment, Storytelling & Authenticity, Heritage & Diversity. And these principles guide Gareth’s passion for community building. Maker House Co. donates 2% of all sales to a community non-profit to encourage everyday activism. This is called their #CraftChange movement. You can read more about #CraftChange here.
Since 2015 Maker House has donated over $100,000 to many community organizations and initiatives including Goldenrod Community Garden. We are grateful for this support!
Gareth Davies is a proud recipient of the Ottawa Business Journal’s 2021 “40 Under Forty Award”. At the ceremony, Gareth talked about one of his biggest influences - his mom; “My mother, who was always passionate about shopping local and supporting artists before it was trendy.”
And the advice he’d give to his younger self? “Share your ideas, foster partnerships, keep dreaming and be patient.”
Discover the Maker House website here.
Read about the 2021 40 Under Forty Award here.
IB TYPE Inc.
Ian Brignell is company co-Director with Catherine O’Toole of IB TYPE Inc and a major donor/supporter of Goldenrod Community Garden. We thank him for his donation and his innumerable efforts on behalf of the garden.
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Ian’s custom logo, lettering and font designs include the Share-a-Coke font (YOU), Subway, POPEYES, Budweiser, Kashi and Campbells’s.
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He is a lettering designer with the soul of a farmer.
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He and Catherine moved their lives and their business to Ottawa almost 4 years ago and immediately began searching for 2 things: a community initiative to support and a place to grow vegetables. Happily, they discovered Goldenrod!
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Ian cultivates carrots, peppers and tomatoes in plot #63. He has just seeded beets and more carrots for an autumn harvest and he has started to plan for next year; saving tomato seeds from this year’s crop for 2022 plantings.
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Ian loves Goldenrod, the soil and the people he gets to meet there.
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You can see Ian’s custom design work here, and his retail fonts here.
Stokely Design Associates Inc./Michael Stokely
Michael Stokely is Principal and Creative Director of Stokely Design Associates Inc. (SDAI). He leads a team of design professionals dedicated to helping public and private sector organizations with clear, compelling brand communications.
Michael is a citizen of the world and he has a generous heart. Michael has travelled extensively through Europe and Asia. Much of his travel involves cycling and much of his cycling is for charity. He and his company proudly support a select group of charitable organizations including Cycle for Sight, Tour for Kids and now - Goldenrod Community Garden. We are grateful for his generous donation.
For Michael Stokely and SDAI, relationship is everything. According to Michael, they build strong relationships and most of them last for years, with clients, employees and charitable organizations. “We’re in it for the long ride.”
Please discover more about Stokely Design Associates Inc. click here
CSW Landscape Architects
Founded in Ottawa, Canada in 1975, CSW has helped shape the look and feel of Canada’s Capital through its role in the planning and design of many of Ottawa’s great urban spaces, parks, commercial centres, transportation networks, campuses, hospitals and communities.
CSW’s goal is simple - to design and plan wonderful environments in
which people can live, work and play. And they are succeeding - for over 40 years and a portfolio of over 6,000 projects.
CSW’s principals, including Jerry Corush and Anne-Claude Schellenberg, shape the city in other ways, too; via their targeted charitable giving. Goldenrod Community Garden is very grateful for their support.
You can find out more about CSW here.
Greg Strahl
For Greg Strahl, it all started with a television show called Coronation Street. When he was a child, watching the characters on that show garden and gather in their "allotments" fascinated him, and that vision stayed with him.
When Greg heard about volunteers coming together to establish a community garden in Kitchissippi he knew that he wanted to help. He responded to Goldenrod’s call for tools with a generous cash donation, and for that we are grateful. Why tools? Greg said that from a donor perspective the targeted "ask" triggered his desire to give.
Greg Strahl knows a lot about fundraising: he is a former Chair of the Ottawa Food Bank and today continues his involvement as a member of the building committee. The business of food insecurity and distribution intrigues, so he helps however he can.
Next year, he hopes to have his own plot at Goldenrod, but he’s going to need help because it will be his first ever opportunity to grow vegetables. Greg looks forward to learning, gardening and gathering.