President's Letter October 2020

Greetings, Garden Friends!

Autumn is officially here, leaves are starting to turn, schedules are filling up, and we’re anticipating spring by planting bulbs.  

Fall is also the season when non-profits conduct their major end-of-the-year fund drives. The pandemic has put extra pressure on the budgets of all the organizations and institutions that we value, and their needs are greater than ever.  Our own Charitable Projects Committee, headed by Carol Provan and Sandy Holmes, has already met. We rely on donations from our membership; other clubs raise money in a variety of ways. Some put the projects fund into their budgets and build donations into the dues, somewhat like a tax. Some clubs organize fund-raising events, which require a great deal of time and effort – but they raise money from the community. Look for the Charitable Projects solicitation letter in your mail, and please be generous! 

We also rely on our membership to help the committee find worthy projects. All of us have connections in the greater Cleveland community, and we have many interests. Last month Carol and Sandy organized a morning tour of several of the projects we funded recently: the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, the Lower Lake section of the Doan Brook Watershed, and the native plants garden at Onaway School. It was good to see what the recipients were able to do with our awards, and they were thrilled to be able to thank us in person. It was a very rewarding tour, and I hope to visit more sites.  Start thinking about possible projects now, look for the Shaker Lakes Garden Club Request for Proposal Form on the SLGC website, and contact Carol or Sandy with your suggestions or questions.  

I have a tour suggestion for all of you— the GCA website is a vast treasure, and here’s a quick GPS:  Go to gcamerica.org, click on the Members Area, and go to “Zone Pages” on the menu bar under your picture (if you’ve provided one!). Choose Zone X and you’ll find useful information from other clubs in our Zone, illustrated with lots of good photos. In the right hand column you’ll see an article about Cynthia Druckenbrod’s daylily garden and the tour she hosted for the Garden Club of Akron’s members. From there you can explore other routes through the rich world of GCA offerings.

More to come!

Leigh