It’s the season of giving, and the Pictou and Area Garden Club loves to give.
Recently, the 72-member strong not-for-profit club reached into its coffers to give $3,000 to local endeavours.
“The Pictou and Area Garden Club had a discussion at our last meeting and, during a group conversation, we spoke about the tremendous success of the recent concert fundraiser organized by First Presbyterian and Pictou United churches for the Pictou West Food Bank,” member Beth Henderson explains.
“They had an evening of song last month at First Presbyterian Church. I believe they said whatever amount was raised for the food bank during that event, each of the churches would match that. And as a result, they realized over $8,000.”
The gardeners wanted to keep the goodwill going in support of the food bank.
“When I joined the club 29 years ago, we had $40 in our bank account and I mentioned that because the public supports our annual plant sales, we should give back,” Henderson says.
But they didn’t stop at giving to the food bank. Instead, the membership gave $3,000 to three local causes – $1,000 each to the Pictou West Food Bank, the Pictou County Christmas Fund and Tearmann House.
“And we thought, why don’t we issue a challenge to other community groups to do the same thing, to be generous at Christmas to those in need? We thought if we did this someone else would follow,” Henderson says.
So the Pictou and Area Garden Club is encouraging other groups to make donations to the food bank. The need is particularly great at this time of the year, but does not ease up during the cold winter months following the Christmas holiday. For this reason, the garden club is hopeful that others will accept the challenge and contribute to the food bank.
“We truly believe in giving back to the community in different ways,” Henderson says.
The group hosts a very successful plant sale each year and that sale is the club’s major fundraiser. Garden club members share what’s in their gardens and bring the fruits of their labour to the annual plant sale. The result is amazing.
“And we’re very techy now,” she laughs. “We’re online and we post a list of all of the plants that are available at the sale. It’s a very organized event – the plants are organized alphabetically and there is a garden club member behind each table to provide information and answer any questions. And within two hours we raise thousands of dollars – it was over $6,000 last year and some years it can be as much as $8,000.”
And continuing with their spirit of giving, the group’s annual Christmas party was held recently where $720 was raised from club members for the food bank.
Henderson says she was “astounded” at some of the stats the food bank volunteers provided when the garden club members made their donation.
“They said by the year end, the food bank will have distributed 60,000 kgs of food, fed approximately 500 people and, this Christmas, 172 families have signed up to receive a turkey hamper,” she says.
Those numbers hit home for the garden club.
“Every little bit helps others in our community and we were happy to have been able to help make a difference in their lives,” Henderson says.
Speaking on behalf of the food bank, volunteer Brian Kellock says they were “exceptionally pleased” with the garden club’s recent donations.
And Henderson and Kellock both note that life goes on after December, “so any contributions, any donations that could be generated for the food bank, are “needed and appreciated.”
“We are always in need of non-food products like feminine hygiene products,” Kellock says.
“And since 45 per cent of our clientele are single people – and most of those are men – we are in need of things like razors and shaving cream. Our purpose is to provide food to those in need and items like these are non-food items so we don’t buy them.”
Part of the garden club’s success has been with creating partnerships in the community, from residents of all ages and all stages of their lives.
Henderson says, for example, “In the past year in connection with our 85th anniversary, we helped expand the raised beds at the Seeds of Hope Community Gardens at the Oddfellows Home location in Pictou. This project was partly done with the help of a grant from the Sutherland-Harris Memorial Hospital Foundation.”
Planting seeds in a younger generation, the club has provided direction to elementary students through their Junior Gardeners Program for more than 60 years. The club also donates bursaries to students at both Pictou Academy and Northumberland Regional High School at graduations.
For the community at large, the club coordinates the hanging baskets for the Town of Pictou.
“One member suggested we solicit local businesses to see if they would like to sponsor a hanging basket for the Town of Pictou. We had about 40 last year I think, and that allows businesses as well to participate in the beautification of the town – the town’s not paying anything and the garden club’s not paying anything,” she says.
Members also maintain the Scammell Garden and the garden at the Veteran’s Wing – “and anything else that pops up,” Henderson laughs.
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