Grant Lions donate funds, host guest speaker
By Shari Friedel
The Grant Tribune-Sentinel
At their most recent meeting Wednesday, March 15, the Grant Lions donated the proceeds of their annual pancake feed held in February to two recipients in the community, and welcomed John Kahre as a guest speaker.
Speaker
“If you say, ‘Thy will be done,’ hold on, because you never know where it will take you, remarked John Kahre, guest speaker at the Grant Rotary and Lions Club meetings on Wednesday, March 15.
Kahre, father of Rebecca Heckmann of Grant, lives in Ramona, Okla., and as a retired college instructor, has taken up a unique and inspiring venture—leading prison inmates at Connor’s Correctional Facility near Tulsa in a horticulture program. Kahre holds a degree in science and horticulture with an emphasis in greenhouse management, and taught at Tulsa Community College for over 40 years.
The program he leads at Connor’s provides education, activity and life skills for the inmates, food for the prison, and flowers and trees for public plantings around the state.
The inmates in the program learn aspects of greenhouse and landscape management and irrigation, and can receive college credit hours. Given the time and effort, they can earn a certificate in business and horticulture or an associate’s degree in enterprise development and liberal arts from Tulsa Community College. Also offered is a bachelor’s degree program in rehab (counseling) and business from Langston University. For every three credit hours they earn, inmates can reduce their prison sentence by 30 days.
The programs are limited to a select few who are approved by the colleges.
The inmates, who Kahre usually refers to as “the guys,” apply the classroom knowledge they have gained in the prison grounds’ half-acre garden, cultivating crops such as onions and peppers and herbs to enhance the bland diet they are served. They also raise trees from seedlings to help supply Up with Trees, a Tulsa environmental organization which Kahre has been involved with for decades. The Up with Trees program donates trees to communities for yards, parks and roadsides throughout Oklahoma.
At the prison they have even created a “monarch waystation” with milkweed and colorful blooms to feed migrating monarchs, at the suggestion of the inmates. Initially, Kahre was doubtful about the success of the butterfly garden as they are located in a very desolate area, but somehow the monarchs have indeed managed to find what Kahre calls “an oasis.”
Most importantly, strong relationships have been cultivated between Kahre and the guys. Kahre is continually impressed with the dedication and progress of his students. He said until he became involved with the prison, he had never had a class where he was actually thanked for his instruction. He is quick to return his gratitude—“I’m the blessed one,” he said.