Dear Editor and Community:

You are cordially invited to enjoy a day of beauty in the gardens and in the lovely and distinctive homes of the Boothbay area.

The Boothbay Region Home and Garden Tour is the club’s latest fund raising event. We are now expanding the plantings in the Boothbay Memorial Garden and redoing the Butterfly Garden.  This is an on-going project; we intend to provide a garden that gives the community a place to visit, learn something about plants, and enjoy. Funds from the tour will go toward this goal.  The tour is Saturday, August 11 from 9:30 a.m.to 4:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the Boothbay Harbor Chamber of Commerce on Townsend Ave., $20 prepaid - $25 Tour day. Call 633-2353. We welcome your support for our club as we continue to strive to make a difference in the Boothbay region.

Are you aware of all the ways the Boothbay Region Garden Club benefits this community? Since the organization of the club 81 years ago more and more projects and objectives have been added to meet the needs of this area as well as to provide a lovely place in which we may live.  Here are just some of them:

• Provides scholarships to the YMCA for camperships in the summer amounting to $5,000 annually.
• Provides an annual scholarship awarded through Student Aid Fund at Boothbay High School.
• Provides advanced education scholarships concerning the study of ecology, horticulture, marine biology, conservation, botany or earth sciences totaling $6,000 last year.
• Provides plants and maintains the Boothbay Memorial Garden’s Armillary Garden, Butterfly Garden, The Civil War Monument, and the Gazebo on the Common.
• Provides 36 planted window boxes in the spring to the public buildings in region.
• Decorates and distributes Christmas wreaths to public buildings in the region.
• Prepares and helps maintain school gardens with children.
• Sponsors Smokey the Bear and Woodsy Owl poster contest for education of fire prevention.
• Supports indoor and outdoor gardens and related activities, as well as Christmas arrangements with the Cub Scouts.
• Provides scholarships for Club members who attend Landscape Design and Flower Show Schools.
• Maintains a Garden Therapy Program for residents of the Gregory Wing and Assisted Living residents of St. Andrew’s Village.
• Prepares Christmas tray favors for Meals on Wheels and area nursing homes.
• Established a BLUE STAR MEMORIAL MARKER for this area and maintains the surrounding garden.
• Presents the Festival of Trees which has become a tradition in this community.  It includes Christmas trees for auction and raffle, and a variety of shops providing all types of Christmas items, baked goods, and gifts. Preparation for this event continues year round.

Irene Gerny, President
Boothbay Region Garden Club
Pat McMurry, Co-Chair, Home and Garden Tour