Founders Fund Ballot - Time to Vote!
Margaret Ransohoff
The February SLGC Newsletter featured an article that outlined the Founders Fund Award and how its recipients are chosen. The GCA Founders Fund Committee is now pleased to announce the three finalists for 2021. You can read about these impressive projects and vote for your favorite, using the ballot provided. All GCA Clubs will have the opportunity to vote this month and each Club will select its favorite. Club President Leigh Fabens will then submit the SLGC winner to GCA by April 1. The winner and runners-up will be announced at the GCA Annual Meeting in May.
It is a privilege to cast a vote for one of these projects and I hope that we can achieve an impressive voter turnout! Please take the time to read about each of these compelling projects and reflect upon their vision, mission, and value to the GCA. You may even be inspired to create a project for SLGC to submit in the future!
For more extensive descriptions and photographs of each project, refer to the GCA bulletin, winter 2021.
Proposed by: The Garden Club of the Halifax Country, Zone VIII
Seconded by: Late Bloomer Garden Club, Zone VIII
Inspired by the writings and teachings of Doug Tallamy, this Club aims to transform an overgrown and invasive-filled pocket (.6 acre) of a park in the heart of Ormond Beach into an appealing, exclusively native plant-filled oasis. With already considerable buy-in from their city and county, this project will function as an educational tool to demonstrate the value of native plants to wildlife, birds, and insects. Groups that will participate and learn include students of all ages, scouts, campers, and civic organizations.
2 – Houston Hospice: Family Terrace and Commemorative Garden
Proposed by: The Garden Club of Houston, Zone IX
Seconded by: Magnolia Garden Club, Zone IX
The Garden Club of Houston has a history of providing care and restoration to the Houston Hospice gardens. They wish to enlarge upon this effort with a terrace that gives patients and families full access to the garden and an oasis where a patient in a bed or wheelchair can spend time outside. The plan includes a commemorative garden to honor loved ones. The Founders Fund grant would breathe life into this historic healing space with transformative plantings for the terrace, parterre, and fountain areas.
3 – Rhododendron Glen: Healing a Historic Stream and Engaging All Ages in Urban Water Ecology
Proposed by: Seattle Garden Club, Zone XII
Seconded by: Tacoma Garden Club, Zone XII
Rhododendron Glen is part of a larger watershed that runs through Seattle’s Olmsted Brothers-designed Washington Park Arboretum. This thoroughly planned and shovel-ready collaborative project addresses key GCA positions on clean water for future generations. Initially, the goal is to rejuvenate upper paths and aging plant exhibits. The next phase will be to restore and revegetate a deteriorated stream channel the benefits of which will travel downstream to a lower pond by halting silt flow. The Founders Fund Grant would ensure that restoration extends all the way to the pond and provides an accessible interpretive trail to engage visitors in the long-term benefits of the stream restoration.