• President’s Them and Project 2025-2026
The President’s theme for the coming year is “Grow and Connect.” The goal is to foster our connections within the club and to encourage volunteering for our many activities. This is where we have the opportunities to meet other members. As our membership grows it is even more essential we make these connections with our newest members.
The Avon-on-the-Lake Garden Club will continue the project of mentorship so our new members feel included and valued from the start. As in plants that grow and intertwine with each other so can we do the same with our connections in our garden club.
• President’s Theme and Project 2024-2025
Mentorship Program
President: Barbara Peterson
The 2024-2025 President’s Project is to reinstate a mentorship program. Mentoring new club members is a great way to foster a sense of community and ensure a smooth transition for those joining the club.
The first step will be to recruit current members as mentors. They will be provided a checklist of topics essential to the club which they can share with the newest members. Topics include the club’s mission, civic projects and gardens, fundraisers, program schedule and hostess duties. Establishing a personal connection creates a supportive environment where new members feel welcomed and encouraged to engage in garden club activities.
• President’s Theme and Project 2023-2024
Garden Knowledge
President: Anne Lyon
This year’s the is Garden Knowledge. When asking folks what they would like to get out of joining a garden club, the overwhelming answer is to learn about gardening. This year each member will receive a journal in which they can notes, write down hints, tips and even folklore about working in a garden. The objective will be to have a Tip Book that will be published at the end of the year.
• President’s Theme and Projects 2022–2023
Garden Helpers and Bags for Beds
President, Elaine George
Garden Helpers. If anyone in ALGC could use some help with their garden, we have some members in place that will be able to provide some ideas for you. This is NOT a landscaping service that we are providing. You still have to dig the holes and plant the plants but sometimes we get stuck and have trouble visualizing that next phase. Let’s see how it works out.
Bags for Beds, involves collecting as many plastic grocery bags as possible every month and bringing them to the ALGC meetings. The bags will be delivered to the First United Methodist Church in LaGrange where they will knit, crochet and weave them into sleeping mats which will then be distributed to the homeless. What better way to answer the Garden Club of Ohio’s call to help reduce the amount of plastic in our landfills and provide a helpful service to those who need it most!
• President’s Theme and Projects 2021-2022
Release Butterflies, Not Balloons
President: Elaine George
GCO President, Marlene Hatton’s theme for the next two years is “It’s Time for a Cool Change” and will challenge us to think of ways we can lessen our use of plastics thereby reducing the incredible amount of plastic waste in our environment. My President’s Project this year is also a project born of the concern for the environment.
The theme for the year, once again, is “Plant America–Share Our Vision,” which I believe will continue to be the standard by which we select our projects and outreach goals. The first half of my President’s Project will be the collection and protection of Monarch Butterfly eggs. As we know, the number of these important pollinators has been drastically reduced over the last two decades–as much as 80-90%! Even though our club maintains two butterfly gardens, it seemed that these dire numbers called for a more drastic conservation effort. The plan is to allow these eggs to grow and develop without threat of predation with the ultimate goal of releasing a large number of adult butterflies. I am planning to call this event “Release Butterflies, Not Balloons” to stress the importance of Monarch conservation and keeping balloons out of the environment where they pose a serious threat to wildlife. Maybe we can start a new trend!
For more information about the ALGC Monarch Butterfly Project, check out this link: https://avonlakegarden.club/home-2/monarch-butterfly-rescue/
• President’s Theme and Project 2020–2021
Plant America…Share Our Vision
President: Elaine George
As the Avon-on-the-Lake Garden Club celebrates our 90th Anniversary, we will try to get to know our founders and how they forged the foundation of the club we know today. Formed at the very beginning of The Great Depression, those early members not only felt the need to form a group of gardening lovers but also a group that was anxious to share their passion with the community at large. These ladies had a vision and so do we! As we begin this new fiscal year, we also find ourselves living in challenging times. The pandemic that has gripped our nation and the world for the past several months has changed lives everywhere. Likewise, our club has had to make some significant changes but we have been able to safely work in the community gardens of Avon Lake and believing that doing so is good for body, mind and spirit, we will be sharing our vision by installing a Free Book Box House in the Miller Park Wildflower Garden. Our plan is to stock it with gardening books for the whole family. We are also hoping to be able to work with the docents at the historical Peter Miller House to teach the school groups that visit the home about the variety and uses of herbs in the pioneer housewife’s garden.
• President’s Theme and Project 2018–2020
Plant America… Grow Our Future
President: Jennifer Fenderbosch
Gay L. Austin, the 2019-2021 National Garden Club’s President will continue to support the “Plant America”projectthat isdesigned to educate the public about gardening. Marylou Smith, the 2019 – 2020 Garden Club of Ohio’s President project theme is “Plant America. Today’s Youth – Tomorrow’s Gardeners.“ Both have challenged local Garden Clubs to focus on programs that support education and the youth. The PollinatorGarden at Avon Lake’s Old Firehouse Community Center supports both themes. The 2019 – 2020 ALGC’s President’s Project theme is “Plant America… Grow Our Legacy”.To support “Grow Our Legacy”the ALGC President’s project will focus on local school involvement in the NGC and GCO Youth Projects: Youth Sculpture Contest, Youth Essay Contest, Smokey Bear/Woodsy Owl Poster Contest, and the Preserving our Natural Habitats Contest. These projects are focused on K-12 students building upon the legacy that ALGC has developed within the community. Invite a child to partake in nature and the love of nature will never leave.
• President’s Project 2016–2018
BeeGap
President: Beth Murphy
Interview with former Avon-on-the-Lake Garden Club president, Beth Murphy, about the BeeGap project.
Avon-on-the-Lake Garden Club 