Sunshine Project shines on Sherbrooke

Submitted by Sherbrooke Community Centre

When Susan Dyck puts her mind to something, great things tend to happen.

Dyck is a Registered Nurse at Sherbrooke Community Centre and has brought a passion for gardening to the residents. This spring, Dyck started The Sunshine Project at Sherbooke with the goal of spreading joy throughout the building.

She planted more than 900 sunflower seedlings for residents, staff and families to plant not only throughout Sherbrooke but in the greater community as well.

“As I started talking about The Sunshine Project with residents in my neighbourhood, it just kind of seemed like it was a natural progression to just plan more,” explained Dyck.

The Sunshine Project was sparked from a special relationship Dyck had with Dr. Jodi Grant, a resident at Sherbrooke. Dr. Grant was known as Dr. Sunshine who played an influential role in the Grade 6 iGen program based at Sherbrooke. The iGen program is a partnership between Sherbrooke and the Saskatoon Public Schools that sees 25 Grade 6 students spend their school year in Sherbrooke, learning from not only their teachers but from residents and staff as well.

Dr. Grant passed away earlier this year and Dyck now sees The Sunshine Project as a way to celebrate the memory of her friend.
“Jodi gravitated towards the sun and I kind of saw her as a sunflower herself. And so I kind of told her that we would plant out sunflowers for her and she would be the original sunflower.”