Film crew visits Lions Club garden

The students at the Whitefish Lions Club garden last week had a bit of spotlight on them as they picked vegetables. They didn’t seem to notice as a film crew recorded them digging potatoes and harvesting squash.

Lions Club International sent a film crew to Whitefish to make a documentary about the local club’s Farm to School garden and its 3-year-old effort to get students into the garden and eating its bounty. Seventh and eighth graders at Whitefish Middle School pick the vegetables each fall.

The crew filmed the harvest, processing of the produce and the students eventually eating that produce. The documentary piece on the garden will be featured on the Lions Club International website.

“It will get international recognition — so that’s good,” said Greg Schaffer, president of the Whitefish Lions Club.

The local club has 12 members and reorganized four years ago. The garden has been one of their major projects. The garden sits between the Don K car dealership — on the business’s land — and CARQUEST, which donates water for the garden.

“We’re doing it to basically educate young people on better nutrition,” said Schaffer. “It also gives kids a taste of community service.”

Lions Club International has clubs in 207 countries around the world and 1.35 million members. It’s the world’s largest service club organization. One of the focuses of the club is assisting those who are blind and visually impaired.

Schaffer said the Whitefish club looks at teaching children about better nutrition through the garden and eating its produce as a way to help prevent diabetes, which can impact the eyes.

He noted that having the children work in the garden gives them a way to be volunteers in their community.

“We want youth to become volunteers and become involved in community service clubs,” he said. “We want to spark something in youth that will carry into high school, college and when they have their own families hopefully they stay involved. This is our legacy project.”

Schaffer noted that the garden project is different from the kind of service work most Lions Clubs perform.

Kristopher Kempski, with Lions Club International, agreed the project is unique. Kempski accompanied the film crew from Chicago to Whitefish for the harvest.

“We’ve known about the project for a few years and it has gone really well,” he said. “It has educational, nutritional and environmental components. We also liked that they get involved in working with youth.”

It will take about a year for the piece on the garden to be edited and then it will be posted to the Lions website, www.lionsclubs.org.