Welcome to our 2023-2024 Club Year!
I am delighted to be your new president! Thanks to recent past presidents Janet Chance, Mariann Keenan, Nancy Englund, and Lynn Jax I have “inherited” a club that is vibrant, growing and filled with delightful members like you.
We have accomplished so many delightful and impactive things as a club thus far and I look forward to continuing this great tradition with each of you.
Soooo…. Are you picking up on my President’s Theme yet?
Cultivating Delight Through Gardening and Community Service
What delights you? Delight doesn’t just happen, you have to look for it. Cultivate it. Share it. Daily.
By loving something we allow other people the opportunity to love it, too. Sharing, tapping someone on the shoulder, saying “Hey, look – do you see that… Eden Rose, Halictus Tripartitus, Monarch butterfly, double rainbow, bald eagle?” It’s this human connection that helps us all thrive.
The joy comes in the sharing. And who doesn’t need more joy in their life every day? As a club we share our delight in gardening through our community service. We educate our members and the community with our fabulous speakers program each month (you don’t want to miss Krystle Hickman our Sept 8 speaker, she’ll explain what a Halictus Tripartitus is!).
Tending the Rose Garden and Pocket Park, contributing to the pollinator gardens at Heisler Park and Bluebird Park, supporting the school gardens at El Morro, TOW and Thurston Schools, and lending our support to the Glenwood House Garden, and Hortense Miller Garden are just some of our community service endeavors.
We support the Laguna Food Pantry with our monthly egg carton collection. Our Club provides scholarships to LBHS students and Saddleback College students with an interest in horticulture, ecology, and conservation.
Our club supports the Cleveland National Forest re-foresting program through our Penny Pines donations. We support the Blue Bell Foundation butterfly garden by drinking the delicious coffee provided by Chris Lutz each month.
We enthusiastically and delightfully participate in the Patriot’s Day Parade (GO RAKE-ETTES!), and the Sawdust Festival Green Day. We never miss the Arbor Day Celebration or the Memorial Day American Legion Ceremony.
We have fun enjoying and delighting in each other’s gardens during our garden open houses and bounty shares (look for more of these in the coming year). With our Trips and Tours and Green Thumb activities we get to know each other better and share in the delight of seeing new places and learning new things.
In keeping with our mission statement: “Laguna Beach Garden Club is a service organization committed to the advancement of gardening, horticulture, ecology, and conservation through education and participation in related community projects,” we have pledged financial support towards the purchase of the South Laguna Community Garden Park. Most recently we supported the exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum – Joseph Kleitsch: Abroad and At Home in Old Laguna – with our sponsorship of two of the delightful paintings by Kleitsch, considered one of the most important artists to have lived, painted and exhibited in Laguna Beach. If you missed the Garden Club’s private tour on August 29 I encourage you to visit the museum on your own before the close of the exhibition on September 24. The beauty and joy found in his paintings of old Laguna will make you fall in love with our city all over again.
I invite you to share with me and each other what delights you about your Club, your garden, this beautiful Laguna Beach we call home.
– Jane Leary 2023-2025 President