A video message sent to UWindsor donors Thursday gives students a chance to express their gratitude, says Jody Maskery, director of advancement services.

“We just wanted to send a thank-you note to all the people who have supported the University’s students and programs through the year,” Maskery says. “We hope to show the appreciation of the prime beneficiaries of their generosity—our students who have been given the opportunity to succeed.”

The video, produced by Peter Freele of the Centre for Teaching and Learning, follows a big gift box as it is passed from hand to hand by students in recognizable campus locations ranging from the Centre for Engineering Innovation to south campus stadium to Essex Hall Theatre.

“It’s the time of year we want to give thanks,” says Maskery. “Maybe this video will make someone’s day!”

Watch it here:

Siyaram Pandey’s Kevin Couvillon Research Project on Anticancer Effects of Dandelion Root Extract, got another boost from the community yesterday when the India Canada Association presented a cheque for $5000 to Dr. Pandey during a ceremony in Essex Hall. The ICA, which has a long history of supporting community initiatives, raised the money at its annual fund-raising dinner in October, which featured India’s consul general to Toronto, Preeti Saran, as its guest of honour.

The project is named in honour of Kevin Couvillon, a 26-year-old musician and sound engineer, who died in November 2010 following a three-year battle with acute myeloid leukemia. His parents, Donna and Dave Couvillon, both UWindsor alumni and retired educators, first heard of Pandey when they read an article about a team of his students who discovered that a water-based formula they developed from dandelion roots was effective in killing commercially available lines of cancer cells. Since then, the couple has also donated a total of $40,000 to Pandey’s research, which was approved for human clinical trial in November.

Under the direction of Windsor Regional Cancer Centre oncologist Caroline Hamm, 30 local patients will be recruited for Phase 1 of the trial, which will be limited to patients with blood cancers or lymph node cancers and will only be tried on those who have already tried chemotherapy and exhausted all other options. These will be patients who are terminally ill with cancers that are drug-resistant.

 “It is extremely generous of the community,” Pandey says of the donation. “I know this project in particular belongs to the community and is very strongly supported by people in Windsor and Essex County.”

Though in its earliest stages of testing, Pandey says findings have the potential to create huge change in the treatment cancer patients receive.

“With the support of the ICA and other groups and individuals who have shown interest in this research we can make great strides in how cancer is managed.”

The University’s campus community garden project is a way to close a gap between the campus community and the surrounding neighbourhoods, says its founder.

Rita Haase, a sessional instructor in women’s studies, helped to get the garden—located on California Avenue behind the education building— running in the spring of 2010. She said its 200 volunteers encompass UWindsor students and employees as well as about 30 members of the broader community.

“If we share the food and love of gardening, it can bring people together,” she says.

She says that despite the large agricultural industries in the surrounding county, many people in the city do not have access to fresh healthy food.

“These are known as desert areas,” Dr. Haase says. “Usually poor areas where you cannot get fresh produce. There are convenience stores everywhere but they do not supply residents with healthy options.”

The garden was set up to empower people in the community to work together and support each other, and she says the University has provided help beyond the donation of the actual site.

“We had a lot of in kind support from the University when starting the project,” she says. “A garden is the most sustainable way to have a green space.”

Food Services has delivered scraps to the garden for composting, and ground services provides the garden with topsoil.

Dave McEwen, head of Food Services, says his department would like to offer more local produce, but there are complicating logistics.

“The school year runs outside of when the growing season is,” he says. “We are in business from September to April, and everything grows in the summer months.”

He adds that the although the University’s operations are large, they do not offer the economies of scale necessary for industrial farming.

“We have been in touch with a couple of local greenhouses trying to get them to do business with the university, but our volumes are so small compared to what they are accustomed to dealing with, it’s not cost effective for them to stop a truck here,” says McEwen. “They would rather stock a transport truck of tomatoes that they can ship down to Mexico or put on a plane and ship to Russia or Japan.”

— by Jess Craymer

A series of workshops starting January in support of the Campus Community Garden Project will encourage further development of urban farming in Windsor-Essex, says the UWindsor alumnus who won a $3,558 grant to make it happen.

Robert Woodrich (BA 2011) received the monies from the Cooperators Foundation’s Impact Fund, created to engage youth in sustainability solutions that will have a positive impact on Canadian communities.

“Combining environmental and social issues, I immediately thought of the community garden,” he says.

The plan is for about eight free workshops to provide practical advice on ways that participants can bring sustainable eating and gardening practices home.

“I think people are increasingly turning toward consuming local products,” says Woodrich, now a masters student at Wilfrid Laurier University. “I would love for people to see the campus doing something to reach out to the community.”

The funding will cover small honoraria for the workshop facilitators, as well as supplies like vegetable seeds that participants can use in their own planting.

“The idea is that the series will give university students and community members the skills to grow their own vegetables—whether in backyard gardens or even window boxes,” he says.

Read more about the project on the Impact Fund website.

A University of Windsor graduate wants to brighten the city with a quick look at a community that is fighting back. With help from a small grant from the Social Work Students Association, Matt Krawl has created a short film about Ford City, the neighbourhood east of Walkerville centred on Drouillard Road.

“I hope to leave a mark on Windsor by showing the good things about the area,” said Krawl.

The film We Are has no dialogue and runs for two minutes. It highlights community events in Ford City along with its heritage, and showcases the music of local artist Jody Raffoul, who gave consent for his song “Home” to be used in the film.

Krawl did a placement in Ford City for one of his social work classes last year.

“There is a negative stigma about Drouillard Road, I wanted to get the word out that Ford City is open for business and is opening its doors to the public,” he said.

The student association awarded $500 grants to each of four placement students to help them give back to their placement communities. To receive his grant, Krawl pulled negative stories from newspapers and told the association he wanted to create a change. He was awarded the grant in early July.

“I previously had the opportunity to help produce a documentary about homelessness in the county;” Krawl said. “I was able to see the impact of showing things through film. I see that people are drawn to the dramatic visuals. It’s a medium that I would like to use in communities.”

The film was directed by Tim Swaddling. He and his cinematographer Juarrod Ferris started filming in May and the video was completed in mid-September. It has already been used for promotion at city meetings, says Stephen Lynn, Community Development Coordinator at Ford City Neighbourhood Renewal.

“We’re getting a great response from the public, by showcasing the neighborhood and showing the social side of things,” says Lynn. “There are always community events going on.”

He adds that residents are excited to see the finished work because most of them are the stars, and they have been watching and helping the film crew all summer. The film will premiere to the public in early February 2013, but no location has yet been set. For more information, call Lynn at 519-915-9583 or go to fordcity.ca.

— by Jess Craymer