Because of You - Donor Report 2011
 The Heart of Jackson's Garden
A grandfather's memories sowing a legacy for SAIT students | 
| | BECAUSE OF YOU, Jackson's memorial garden is sowing the seeds of knowledge by educating and inspiring chefs like Andrew Hewson to turn nature into nutrition. | A group of children sits at a picnic table beside a garden on a sunny afternoon. They're laughing and dipping freshly-picked rhubarb in a plate of sugar. A four year old boy takes a bite of the tart fruit, puckers his chubby face and squeals. “Oooh that makes my mouth whistle!” The little boy owes this experience to the legacy of another little boy named Jackson. The ‘Jackson Henry Henuset Memorial Garden,’ against a south-facing corner of SAIT Polytechnic’s John Ware Building, is the living legacy of a little boy who drowned in November of 2009, a few months before his third birthday. Shortly after this tragedy, Jackson’s grandfather, Wayne Henuset, decided this garden would be a fitting memorial to his grandson. Henuset is a member of SAIT’s Promising Futures™ Campaign Cabinet and the owner of Willow Park Wines and Spirits. He had already been planning to sponsor the garden, which would be used as a classroom for SAIT’s culinary students. Chef Andrew Hewson, an instructor in SAIT’s Professional Cooking program, spearheaded the garden project to connect culinary arts training with agriculture and sustainability issues. It’s a premise called Culinary Agro Literacy and it is having a surprising impact on Hewson’s students. The “cool part” says Hewson, happens when his students taste plants from the garden. “You can see it in their faces. They're like children trying these flavours for the first time.” “Working with the plants in the garden gives our students a whole different level of respect for food and ingredients,” says Hewson. An appreciation for the authenticity of ingredients is what initially drew Henuset to the project. “I'm in the wine business and I know that if you grow great grapes, you make great wine. The same is true for food.” Originally, Henuset planned to call it Willow Park Garden, but after Jackson’s accident he knew only one name would be right. The garden would pay tribute to Jackson. “I did it so everyone would know he was here…” explains Henuset. “So everyone remembers that life is important.” He says choosing to commemorate Jackson’s life with a garden seemed only natural and his explanation is simple. “I guess I'm just a gardener at heart,” says Henuset.
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