Welcome to Des Plaines, IL Garden Club

2 NEW Community Gardens

Our Des Plaines Garden Club has partnered with the Des Plaines Park District to design, plant and maintain TWO NEW Community Gardens ~ One is the Community Garden at Lake Park in Des Plaines on the corner of Touhy and Lee streets - by the main “Lake Park” sign and our blue star memorial marker. Our blue star memorial marker is in the process to be refurbished and placed in a more prominent location in this community garden)

This large featured new garden includes Red Canna, Dusty Miller, Begonias, Red and Blue Saliva & Red Heart Blood Leaf and other annual plants.

Our garden club members who provided design & planting were Marilyn Wouda (Chariman), Pam Mazzini,

The second new community garden is by the Pavilion Bandshell within Lake Park

This new garden is a presentation in Red, White, and Blue and includes Red and Blue Saliva and Dusty Miller

Our garden club members who provided design & planting were Marilyn Wouda (Chairman), and Pam Mazzini

We will continue to maintain our current Lake Park Perennial Garden to the side of the main Lake Park sign & behind the memorial benches.

Our garden club members who provided the Perennial Garden clean up and planting of Dahlias were Marilyn Wouda (Chairman), Pam Mazzini, Mary Peglow, Donna Perkowski and Marjorie Wayne

Congratulations! It all looks fantastic!

Thanks to all for joining our zoom meetings at the start of the year, we even had some of our out-of-state members join us.

We even created and launched a new Des Plaines IL Garden Club website to keep all our members in touch during the pandemic.
From March to May, The Des Plaines History Center gave us their exclusive display space for our 90th-year display to showcase our 90 years of activity in Des Plaines.
In May, we had our very successful PLANT Sale in the parking lot of the Frisbie Center in Des Plaines, IL ~ and our Des Plaines Garden Club presented a wreath to honor our veterans on Memorial Day.
June was our actual anniversary, so we celebrated our 90th Anniversary Luncheon, The members dressed for the occasion in their finest 1931 style apparel. where everyone wore beautiful hats to honor our founding group of ladies. ~ The Mayor of Des Plaines proclaimed June 2021 as Des Plaines Garden Club month and gave us a proclamation.
This past spring we added a new Community Garden at the Self Help Pantry. The two large planters by the front door, which were spectacular.
In July we had our Garden Walk ~ Thanks to Marylyn Wouda, Rich, and Lana Gernady, Louise Martorano, and Ray, and Karen Holich for opening their gardens for our enjoyment. ~ We also visited Catherine Timmins Gardens.
September was the Fall Fest at the Lake Park. ~ Where we worked with the park district and the Des Plaines Chamber of Commerce in their information booth. To have a children's craft to make hanging bird feeders out of Cheerios.
November brought our Annual Fall Fundraiser ~ Each table had a beautiful vintage centerpiece, each member received a handmade bookmark, and special 90th-anniversary cookies were at each place. The meal was great, Kim Hartmann presented a great holiday floral program, the raffle baskets were a success, and everyone had a great time. We were honored by the State of Illinois honoring our 90th anniversary. State Senator, Laura Murphy was in attendance to present the proclamation.

Thanks to all who attended our November Holiday Fundraiser

It was a great SUCCESS! We had 162 people in attendance.

Our Basket Raffle had 60 baskets for our attendees to place their raffle tickets in for a chance to win.

Our Bake sale table was filled with hundreds of home-made goodies.

Our Silent auction had items from an Artisan hand-made rocking horse, to a beautiful

pearl necklace.

Thanks to our community partners who made donations and all the club members who made donations and our club members who worked so hard for the success of our event.

OUR SPECIAL GUEST WERE:

• Andrew Goczkowski. Mayor of Des Plaines. (Jan Goczkowski's Son)

• Illinois State Senator Laura Murphy

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

OUR SPECIAL GARDEN CLUB GUEST WERE:

• Carol Yee. director Central Region of National Garden Clubs

• Marilyn Krueger. President Garden clubs of Illinois (GCI)

• Carol Ohrn. 1st Vice President of GCI

• Laurel Deboer former GCI President, current President of the Flower Show judges council.

• Susan Slapke former GCI Convention and Scholarship Chairman.

• Barbara Gilblair District IX of GCI director.

• Maija Zaimins Vice-Director Dist IX

• Anita Bierbaum former GCI President, current Website and Finance Chair. Central region Associate Treasurer, Dist IX website Chair, National sponsors committee, and Des Plaines Garden club photographer.

We are very fortunate to Have the friendship and shared leadership from this very talented group.