On September 25, the Baudry Trails in Ste. Agathe gained a beautiful new feature. The trails now have 60 birdhouses spread throughout the property, all painted by members of the community.
Lynne Robert was the creative force behind the birdhouse project. Robert is the coordinator for Le Centre de Santé Sainte-Agathe (Ste. Agathe Health Centre) and has a multifaceted job which includes working with the community’s doctor, local schoolkids, and senior citizens, among others. In many ways, she is a champion of Ste. Agathe community spirit.
Robert explains that the health centre is an offshoot of the Centré Medical Seine (Seine River Medical Centre) in Ste. Anne, which arranged for the Ste. Agathe clinic to be located in the town’s school.
“We are very fortunate to be able to be there, so we’re able to do partnerships with the school,” Robert says. “If there’s a special project that arises, we’re always in contact.”
In 2023, Robert had an idea for just such a special project: to fill Baudry Trails with birdhouses. She started by asking the Baudry brothers—Richard, Gilbert, Denis, and Alain—and they gratefully accepted the offer. Next she came across Southern Health’s Reconnecting Neighbours and Nature grant.
Once Southern Health accepted her application, she went to the administration of the school and to the senior citizens she works with to see if they would like to partner with her.
Everybody was on board.
Robert wanted to keep her birdhouse project as local as possible, and she also hoped to support French businesses, as that is part of the mandate of her position.
She approached EPIC de St. Malo (SMILE of St. Malo) to see whether they might be willing to build the birdhouses.
EPIC is a non-profit that advocates and promotes inclusion for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Robert spoke with their woodworking manager, who gave her another yes and came up with blueprints for two different styles of birdhouses.
Continuing with her goal to stay local, Robert went to Wm. Dyck & Sons in Niverville to acquire painting supplies.
With all her ducks in a row, Robert organized a painting party. In May, she gathered about a dozen seniors and students from Grades Six, Seven, and Eight.
Robert had three senior citizens who didn’t prefer to paint but wanted to get involved anyway, so she asked them to make sheet pan pizzas for the whole crowd. For dessert, she brought in donuts from Boulangerie St. Pierre (St. Pierre Bakery).
A total of 54 birdhouses were painted that day, and another six were finished at a second painting party hosted by the Ritchot Library.
The plan had been to put up all the birdhouses in June, but weather left the Baudry Trails too soggy.
The big day finally arrived in September.
“We got ourselves a bunch of helpers, some men with drills and ladders, some of my seniors, and I think there were 30 kids with some school staff and a couple of the Baudry brothers were there also,” she says. “Off we went to set up all those birdhouses. It was pretty darn amazing!”
The birdhouses are up in the Baudry Trails now and Robert feels proud of the project.
“I love working in my community,” she adds. “It is just amazing. I am the luckiest lady on Earth to have this little job where I get to do these things.”
The Baudry Trails are always open, but Saturday, October 12 may be a particularly good day to go see the new birdhouses as the RM of Ritchot is holding their second Nature Mindfulness Workshop from 10:00 until 11:30 a.m.
The cost for the event is $5 and will include a guided walk through the trail, interpretation of trees and plants and their uses, mindfulness practices, nature journaling, and an introduction to forest bathing.
