2013 Tree Project Update

At this time, over 30% of our members are involved in the project. Some are working on the committee directly, and others are raising American elm seedlings and seeds. Our hope is that we can involve nearly everyone in the club in some aspect of the project as it progresses.

The club continues to get good press in the community, and at the zone and national GCA levels. And, two local community organizations have already contacted us and asked for seedlings: the Grove Street Cemetery and Beaver Pond Park. Plus, the Nantucket Garden Club has asked us to provide it with seedlings and seeds to use in its 2013 tree project!

The steering committee for the 2011 Zone II meeting to be hosted by GCNH is considering using our American elm seedlings for the gavel competition, which will spread our trees over all of CT and to parts of RI. We hope this works out.

Currently, the committee is hard at work developing materials to use in soliciting matching funds from our community friends. It has established a list of potential donors and expects to begin asking for contributions in February. Your suggestions and ideas for fund-raising are most welcome. Please pass them along to a member of the committee.

---Debbie Edwards

Addendum---Tree Project a finalist

I wanted to share with you the exciting news that I just received from GCA! Our Founders Fund Project has been selected as one of the 3 to be presented this year and assures support for GreenSkills, our partnering organization. If we 'win', GreenSkills will receive $25,000. If we are not chosen as the top project, they will still receive $7500. How wonderful this is.

Thanks to Jody Bush and Colleen Murphy-Dunning for preparing the documents, to Kathie Lundgren for identifying a compelling focus and editing lots of drafts, to Kathy Flatley (our ZONE II representative) for presenting our project with such enthusiasm, to Martha Phillips and the Litchfield Garden Club for seconding our efforts and writing a strong supporting letter, and to so many of you who proposed the project and encouraged all of these efforts.

---Carol Ross