Good things are growing at York Care Centre

A vegetable garden started by Sherry Holder, one of the nurses and a unit co-ordinator at York Care Centre, is part of the therapeutic care at the facility.

"In the past, they have always had flower beds the residents helped take care of. This is the first time we've had a vegetable garden."

Holder, who likes to grow flowers at home, decided to plant a vegetable garden after several of the nursing home's residents expressed a desire to have a vegetable garden.

She asked Terry Grant, a maintenance worker at York Care Centre, to build a raised area for the garden.

Once the bed was ready for planting, Holder purchased the vegetable seeds in the spring.

Waxed beans, pumpkins, tomatoes and leaf lettuce are all thriving in the garden and so are the residents when they get outside to weed and watch their garden grow.

Holder is also loving her time in the garden with the residents.

"I'm very proud of it. I enjoy it very much and I love spending the extra time with the residents. As a unit co-ordinator I have to do a lot of paperwork. This is a nice excuse for me to say, 'Let's go outside and work in the garden for a little bit.'"

The garden is a huge hit with the residents who are excited about watching it grow. This garden reminds them of the gardens they grew before they came to live here.

When they are near the garden, the residents seem to light up.

"It brings back a lot of wonderful memories from when they were younger and had their own gardens and produced vegetables for their families.

"It makes them reminisce about people who were in their lives and things they used to do. People will stop by the windows and they will watch the progress of the garden. It's generated quite a bit of conversation around here. There is one gentleman named Clifford Gee who helped me plant. He loves the outdoors so he is out there on a daily basis and he will pull weeds from his wheelchair. He's a man of very few words but just the expression on his face is very heartwarming."

Holder paid for the seeds and planted the garden on her own time. Her colleagues at York Care Centre say she has given her own time and money to make this garden happen because she knows how much the residents get out of watching things flourish.

Some of the residents who can eat salads are enjoying the fruits of their labour and some of the vegetables have been given to the residents' family members.

The most popular names are listed at St. Thomas University

For the past five years, as part of his preparation for faculty orientation, Garry Hansen, director of institutional research (associate registrar) has generated a list of the top five names for men and women at St. Thomas University.

Although there has been some jockeying for the most popular name, the list of names of the top five for guys and gals has been fairly consistent, he says. The five most common first names of female students in 2008 and 2009 include Sarah, Amanda, Jessica, Jennifer and Ashley. No new female names broke into the top five this year, he says.

"Sarah and Amanda hold the coveted first- and second-place titles for another year, while Ashley stumbles, falling from fourth to fifth. Jennifer and Jessica continue to jockey for position, with Jessica jumping two spots to third."

The five most common first names of male students are Matthew, Daniel, Andrew, Christopher, while Joshua and Michael are tied for fifth place.

"The seemingly unstoppable Matthew continues its long reign as top male name. Daniel and Andrew swap positions, setting up a battle of biblical proportions next year with Daniel no doubt dreaming of dethroning the venerable gospelaire.

"Christopher and Joshua continue the biblical theme, returning unexpectedly to knock Ryan from the top five."

Howard attended STU from 1981 to 1985. He's pretty sure that Garry likely wasn't among the top five most popular guys' names back then.

"My name is spelled with two Rs so people tend to see that as very rare. I'd be astonished if it were in the top five back then."

Howard says for the past couple of decades, popular culture has really influenced how people have named their children; however, many of the names on the list are traditional and biblical.

Howard isn't sure if he will still be at the university 20 years from now but he says it will be interesting to see what the most popular names are for university students at that time.

"My son's name is Brian. I always get asked if he spells it Bryan, and before Bryan Adams I would never even thought of spelling it that way. But now people see that as the standard. That's popular culture.

"The thing that's most interesting about names is that they are kind of like a time capsule because you are looking at the names that are a result of something that was going on 18 years ago. So you can try to track it back to some kind of culture thing that was going on back then."