I have been influenced and supported by many; was truly humbled the day I was nominated for this position and have been surrounded by encouraging words and support which have touched my heart and I will forever be grateful. I will fulfill the terms of this office to the best of my ability and with a sincere heart.

You have elected and installed a very “User Friendly” Executive Board who loves to garden and loves to have fun.  They are gardeners who smile and who believe in what federated garden clubs stand for and I eagerly anticipate  working with them. We are here to assist, guide and help you in any way that we can…and we will. 

Together as garden club members, we are going to plant something that we can be excited about. The State is going to enhance our flower beds. It is up to all of us to find that particular something within the framework of our club that appeals and is worth planting.

We are all different; we do things differently wanting different results. Our common thread is our love of plants, our desire to learn and our wish to improve whatever little piece of earth we can with the tools and knowledge we have.

This is how the theme for the term 2009-2011 has evolved. TGCI Cares. We care about our neighbors, our friends, our communities. We like to enhance, improve, restore and beautify our spaces. We, as federated Garden Clubs are being asked to participate in two wonderful projects proposed by National President Elect, Renee Blaschke. The first project, called “Golden Days”, is the planting of daffodils, across the nation in memory of/or in honor of persons who have been important to our garden club members. The second project is, “Beautify Blight”. This project is asking us to go into blighted areas in our community, work with civic leaders and young people such as youth groups, scouts, and/or youth garden club members to plant community gardens. Even though many of us cannot til, or get down on our rickety knees, we can make phone calls, offer vegetable growing programs to the public, and mentor new gardeners. During this period in our country, it is an opportune time to pursue this project. Therefore, our State Project is called Growing Gold. We can plant golden daffodils in places for others to enjoy and/or help plant and harvest vegetables in community gardens. Both are golden to those who are in need of soul nourishment or physical nourishment. We have planted native plants and will continue to do so; however,now we are going to enlarge our opportunities and challenges. Who knows how many lives and hearts we can touch because TGCI Cares!


I eagerly anticipate this journey and challenge with you.  Let us share our joy in gardening, knowledge and resources with others in our local communities. As we all know a garden is never finished! TGCI Cares so we are going to compost, til, plant, fertilize, and mulch knowing that we are proudly “Growing Gold”. Now my final wish for you is this: