Central Oregon students represent the U.S. in Taiwan

This month local Sisters student Emily Ausman and another Central Oregon student, Donte Smith (who is from the Warm Springs Reservation), travelled to Taipai, Taiwan, to represent the United States at a conference for Caretakers of the Environment International (CEI).

Students who attended the conference are participating in environmental community service projects in their home countries, which they presented at the conference. There were 14 countries in attendance and 41 student presentations.

Ausman and Smith's presentation was about the raised garden beds that they are building for The Brookside Place assisted living home in Redmond. Their presentation was chosen as one of seven to be presented to the whole conference.

The conference, held July 6-13, is the 28th conference held by CEI and next year's conference, which Ausman and Smith hope to attend, will take place in Portugal. The conference was held in Yilan, Taiwan, at HueDeng High School. The international students were welcomed to Taiwan with cultural performances including dances, songs, and nunchucks. Smith also prepared a native dance and it was performed by the American delegations as apart of the cultural ceremonies.

The theme for this year's conference was "Nature, Culture, and Future." Ausman and Smith were part of a group of eight student representatives from the U.S. The group consisted of three different American delegations: one from Salem, one from Chicago, Illinois, and theirs from Central Oregon. The projects, data, and ideas presented by each delegation to the other students are published in the annual CEI forum.

The goal of the conference is equally about making international connections and friendships as it is about discussing environmental struggles and solutions. While much of the conference is education-based, students also get a chance to explore the host country by going on field trips and doing things such as hiking, river trekking, and visiting local museums and historical sights. The conference also invites local environmental experts to give talks on current issues.

Mark Keel, the administrator at Edwin Brown Education Center in Redmond, was the adult leader for Ausman and Smith's project with The Brookside Place. He was excited about the outcome of the conference and he even hopes someday it could come to Central Oregon. The goal of the project is to create four wheelchair accessible raised garden beds for the home.

In their presentation Smith explained, "Gardening has shown to be a remarkable tool in preventing dementia and promoting a longer, healthier and happier life. Being able to provide such an amazing hobby to the residents at Brookside Place will be an enriching experience for everyone involved."

The pair also goes on to explain that eventually this project could be used as a vegetable garden for the home and could become a main source of produce for the home.

Ausman says, "Being able to grow produce locally will reduce the dependence on large scale, conventional agriculture therefore reducing the use of fossil fuels, insecticides and the overworking of our agricultural land."

Ausman was inspired to become involved in the project after her exposure to the IEE program at Sisters High School. She also cites studies saying that gardening promotes healing, boosts memory, and offers a low-impact activity for residents. In the future she would like to potentially be involved with hospital design and architecture that allows patients to interact more positively with their environments.

Smith was inspired to spearhead the project because he believed it could make a positive impact on the community and in talking to the residents knows that many of them have a background or have found a hobby in gardening.

"We are strong believers in culture and tradition," he said. "We want to keep the tradition of gardening strong so it won't go away."