December 2025 Newsletter
Our Member Garden this month:
Hilary Robinson’s garden is filled with an abundance of color, green hues as well as delicate aromatic flairs. Over the years she has planted wisteria, lilacs, peony’s, iris, holy, tulips and blue hyacinths. She also hosts a kitchen garden brimming with basil, sage, thyme, rosemary, lavender. We all know what a wonderful cook Hilary is and now we have a peek into why her dishes are delish!
Letter From Our President:
Happy December!
Wow! What a fun night at the Auction! Thank you to Melinda Shumway for coming up with the idea and committee members: Joan Campbell, Sarah Garland Hoch, Lauren Huyett, Kathleen Kennedy, Pam Nelson, Jane Rupley, and Kate Wharton. Charity Tremblay along with co-auctioneer Marty Wallace did a wonderful job auctioning off 17 live auction items. The 32 silent auction items were well bid on by attendees. The club grossed $18,000 with a projected net of $17,000.
If you would like an acknowledgement for your donation (goods or financial) to the club auction please contact Rod Riedel at geraldriedel@gmail.com. If anyone has any invoices from the Auction or our holiday events please send them to Rod Reidel so we are able to pay them by 12/31/25.
Thank you to all of the outreach committees that have been working hard this month:
-
Look around town for all of the town wreaths – can you guess this year’s theme?
-
Ellen Whitney hosted everyone at her house, where 32 boxwood trees were made for Meals on Wheels.
-
The Holiday Workshop helped 25 COA members make a beautiful arrangement.
We will be voting on the Grant applications at our upcoming Holiday Luncheon meeting. Please take a moment to read through them. They are listed below.
Would you be interested in being on an adhoc committee to research projects for a Garden Therapy project with assisted living homes? Should we or should we not add this to our outreach programs? Contact holly.salemy@gmail.com if you are interested.
We are looking for two head hosts for the February program. If you have not signed up yet this year – this could be your chance!
It’s time for our website to be updated! We have a team working together to figure out our next steps. Stay tuned!
I look forward to seeing you at the Holiday Luncheon on December 10th at Julia Falwell Clay’s home. If you have not signed up, please do so here:https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A094DA4AB2EA1FB6-60511528-gccholiday
Please see the parking directions below.
Cheers!
Holly
New Members Highlight:
Wendy Page, with her husband Bill first moved to Concord in 1993 before buying a home in Acton. They moved to their current home in Concord on Lowell Road in 2001 with their two boys. She holds a B.S. from the University of Vermont’s Business School and an M.B.A. from Babson College. After UVM, she spent five years at The Boston Company, including the management training program. Following graduation from Babson, Wendy worked at EMC Corporation rising through the organization to become the Worldwide Sales & Marketing Controller. After taking a few years off from finance roles, Wendy joined Recycline Inc. as the Controller. Since 2019, she has been the Director of Finance at The Umbrella Arts Center.
Wendy has served as Treasurer of the Thoreau PTG, Concord Youth Theater and Concord Education Fund. She currently holds the position of Treasurer at the Concord Country Club. She founded the Thoreau School Road Race and the CEF Operation Celebration fundraiser. In her free time, you can find Wendy skiing, golfing, road biking, dog walking, gardening and playing paddle or pickleball.
John LoVerme has lived in Concord for 5 years, moving to the area from Boston where he was with his wife for the 10 years prior. He has 3 young kids Owen (6), Ellery (4), and Connell (2), as well as a big 8 year old English Lab named Kato.
He works in tech remotely from his home, which he has done for 15 years after graduating from Colby College in Maine. He spends his free time outdoors with his kids and loves to use the garden and the surrounding nature as both a classroom and source of joy! Each of his kids have planted a fruit tree in their yard to watch them grow and learn how to care for something that returns the love in the form of apples every fall! You may also see him around town at Concord Museum events or playing basketball in the Concord Rec leagues.
Boxwoods and wreaths have been artistically assembled and sprinkled throughout Concord:
Dear friends,
Thank you all for the wonderful work you did this morning to create 32 gorgeous and individual box wood trees for Meals of Wheels!! Special thanks to Jane for delivering them to Lincoln where they’ll go out with meal deliveries tomorrow.
That was a big production! I appreciate not just your careful work on the trees, but also all your help cleaning up and straightening out the house!! You left me with nothing to do but bask in the glow of a fun time. What a treat!
Wishing you a joyful holiday season,
Ellen Whitney
and…
Anne Lehmann notes, Ellen and Jeanne organized and hosted two fabulous events. The first was to make Alcott women in the form of clothes pins to adorn the town house wreaths and then the group joined again to artistically follow Ellen’s desgin’s to make wreaths matching the ‘departments’ role in town; think lights on the wreath for the light plant, recycled tin leaves from soda cans for the recycle plant and a water tube with blue sparkles for the public works department. At both events Jeanne served up an abundance of delicious appetizers and warm autumnal soup. She is the most welcoming hostess!
The ladies in the middle photo: Pam Nelson, Jennifer Stone, Jeanne Hamilton, Faye Allen, JoAnn Lovejoy, Ellen Matheson and Joan Campbell in front
Third photo left to right pictures:
Jeanne Hamilton, Kathie Rose, JoAnn Lovejoy and Susan Amorello
Grants Update:
By Sarah MacEachern
Below lists the grants that have been requested and their current status.
| Organization | Amount Requested | Proposed Grant | Description |
| Concord Middle School PTG | $904.77 | $500.00 | Wildflower garden |
| Alcott PTG | $660 | $500 | Flower beds at school entrance |
| Concord Art | $1,827.50 | $0.00 | Two Hetz trees |
| Pollinator Health Advisory and CFPL | $350 | $350 | Winter Native Seed Workshop |
| Concord Museum | $500 | $500 | Native groundcover |
| Concord Integrated Preschool | $? | $0 | Educational gardening |
| Gaining Ground | $1,500 | $500 | Wildflower buffer zone |
| Concord Free Public Library | $700 | $500 | Flowering dogwood (replacement) |
| Thoreau School | $1,000 | $500 | Playground landscaping |
| Minuteman Arc | $1,150 | $610 | Landscaping for HQ |
| Friends of Minuteman National Park | $1,000 | $500 | Buttrick Garden flower beds |
| Girl Scout Troop 83817 | $2,156 | $500 | Native garden at Scout House |
| Totals | $11,748.27 | $4,960.00 |
Information about our upcoming holiday party!
From the Holiday Luncheon Committee:
Need to view some colorful flowers?
Minuteman Horticulture greenhouses are busting with new vibrant plants. Students have been working tirelessly caring for the plants to bring the best products they can to their communities. Please come visit our greenhouses where we are selling annuals, perennials, vegetable starts, hanging baskets, patio planters and much much more. Please feel free to email p.kelleher@minuteman.org for any questions you may have. We will be open starting May 1st from 10-2 and Tuesdays through Fridays the entire month of May from 10-2!