LiveSmart BC Community Hero
Retirement Hasn't Slowed Gazetas Down
Mary Gazetas has spent the last six years dedicated to growing the future of Richmond. Through her work as co-founder of the Richmond Fruit Tree Sharing Project, she has created new farms growing fruit and vegetables to feed the less fortunate.
She is also educating a new generation of farmers.
"I knew I wanted to give something back to the community, but I didn't know how that would shape up," said Gazetas.
She read about the work of a Vancouver group that collected unwanted produce from local farms and gave it to the homeless. Inspired, Gazetas, who retired from her position as arts festival planner for the City of Richmond in 2000, took on the task here.
Since then, Gazetas has overseen the production of more than 100,000 pounds of food, and the agricultural education of 500 local students.
But she didn't start out as a green thumb. Raised in West Vancouver, Gazetas earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from University of B.C. and made her living as a designer and print-maker for film and theatre. She taught visual arts in Alberta until she moved to Richmond in 1983.
The mother of three and grandmother of two only learned to slow down and smell the roses after retirement.
"I now have this attitude that it's OK to slow down a little bit," she said. "To find time to do the things you love is so important."
The dog-lover is an avid kayaker who has written a book about her 30 years of kayaking on the open water. A member of the Richmond Tennis Club, Gazetas admits she doesn't have as much time to get out to the courts as she'd like. She is a co-chair of the Richmond Food Security Task Force and a member of the Save Garden City Lands Coalition.
"Because of climate change, the huge importance of local food sources has really caught people's attention. If there's land that can grow food, we have to keep that," she said.
