Community Grants 2019
Based on the recommendations of the Grants Committee, the club has proposed funding the following nine community grants this year for a total of $5050.00. Please take the time to read through this summary before next week’s holiday luncheon/meeting. We will be voting at the meeting.
Garden Club of Concord
2019 Community Grants
Town of Concord/Division of Natural Resources (Mark Hanson “Pollinator Health Advisory Committee)
Grant Category: Educational/Horticultural
Amount: $260
Organization Description: Along with the Town of Concord Division of Natural Resources, a grassroots group comprised of Mark Hanson (an organic gardener and beekeeper, manager of the Conantum Community Gardens, and member of the town’s Pollinator Health Advisory Committee), two CCHS teachers (Tracie Dunn and Peter Nichol) and students at CCHS have organized themselves to develop an educational pollinator meadow on ¼ acre at Harrington Park. The project is intended to have native flowers providing forage for pollinators from early spring to fall. Rick Marshall from Marshall Farm is also supporting the project by providing his time and heavy equipment when needed for soil preparation. The purpose of the site is to provide education for visitors, as well as volunteers, on how to set up and provide beneficial pollinator habitats. The group will also teach fundamental gardening techniques.
Grant Request: Mark Hanson is requesting funds to purchase one native pollinator plant kit from the Native Plant Trust. In addition, the funds will cover four soil tests by UMASS, so that the group can locate plant varieties on the site where they will do well. The multiple soil tests are needed because of the observed widely varying plant performance on various portions of the site. Students and community volunteers will maintain the meadow.
Concord Council on Aging
Grant Category: Community Beautification
Amount: $250
Organization Description: The Concord Council on Aging provides a wide variety of services to Concord’s seniors at the Harvey Wheeler Community Center including a wealth of classes, lectures, groups, events, health clinics, a well-stocked library, a gift shop, and a computer lab.
Grant Request: The Council is requesting funds to fill 18 planters around the Harvey Wheeler Community Center. These planters will benefit the many seniors who use the Center as well as people attending community meetings, the Carousel preschool and people passing by on Main Street. The flowers are planted by a Girl Scout troop who have adopted this project as their spring community activity. Jen Verrill supervises the planting and purchases the plant material at cost for the Council. The Council on Aging custodian carefully waters and maintains the flowers.
Cooperative Elder Services, Inc. (CESI)
Grant Category: Therapeutic Gardening
Amount: $500
Organization Description: Cooperative Elder Services, Inc. (CESI) takes a holistic approach to supporting the health of seniors and adults with medical or cognitive challenges. CESI programs foster an environment where participants can socialize with peers, participate in meaningful activities, exercise their minds and bodies, learn to manage their chronic diseases, and maintain compliance with physician’s orders.
Grant Request: CESI is requesting funds to purchase gardening materials for their Therapeutic Gardening Program at CESI’s Concord Center. The Therapeutic Gardening Program provides a wide variety of failure-free gardening projects throughout the year, such as flower arranging, cultivating herbs and vegetables, creating indoor garden boxes and planting annual container boxes to beautify the entrance to the Center. The Program benefits CESI’s 92 seniors and adults with medical and cognitive challenges. The Gardening Program allows CESI’s participants a regular opportunity to engage with nature, socialize with their peers and gain a sense of accomplishment in a safe and supportive environment.
Concord Land Conservation Trust
Grant Category: Conservation
Amount: $625
Organization Description: The Concord Land Conservation Trust owns over 900 acres of land in Concord, all of which is open to the public. The Land Trust’s first and largest property is the Wright Woods, once the summer home of the donor, Helen Robinson Wright. These woods are one of the CLCT’s more popular properties, with frequent hikers, runners or walkers accessing the area. The CLCT has been working on restoring the site of the former house and maintaining the overlook onto Fairhaven Bay, while restoring other parts of the site to complement the surrounding Red-Oak-White Pine woodland.
Grant Request: The Concord Land Conservation Trust is requesting funds to restore vegetation on the site of the former Bay House overlooking Fairhaven Bay. The general location where the Bay House was located is quite sparse. The first phase of the project is located specifically around the area where an old barn was removed. The CLCT intends to purchase native plants including 12 polystichum acrositchoides, 100 fragaria virginiana, 12 phegopteris connectilis, 20 corylus americana, and 20 vaccinium corymbosum. Only invasive and non-native weedy species will be purposefully removed from the area, or any other species that is an issue. Wildlife and pollinators will benefit from the re-establishment of native plant species in area.
Friends of Minuteman National Park
Grant Category: Community Beautification
Amount: $350
Organization Description: The Friends of Minuteman National Park is a group of volunteers that work to support the Minuteman National Park in preserving landscapes, historical structures and funding educational programming.
Grant Request: The Friends is requesting funds to purchase seasonal plants (spring, summer and fall) for two large window boxes outside the entrance of the North Bridge Visitor Center as well as seasonal plants (spring, summer and fall) for two patio urns. The Visitor Center is visited by thousands of visitors to Concord each year. Due to the budgetary constraints of the Park Service, many of the horticultural programs depend on funds raised by the Friends through fundraisers and grants, such as those offered by the Garden Club.
Zoo New England’s Grassroots Wildlife Conservation
Grant Category: Conservation
Amount: $685
Organization Description: In 2017, the Grassroots Wildlife Conservation group, a Concord-based nonprofit, joined Zoo New England. The combined organization continues its work in maintaining a 5.3 acre pollinator meadow on a portion of Peter Spring Field, Town of Concord land, (aka C. Courtney Comeau Land). This area is designated as a turtle-nesting habitat for the State-Threatened Blanding’s turtle. Prior to a grant received by the Garden Club of Concord in 2016, the area was dominated by unsightly ragweed, horseweed, and red clover. The field is now bursting with color and has become a pollinator magnet. For example, rattlebox, a regionally rare legume, has been established in the meadow, resulting in a substantial population of ornate bella moths whose larvae depend on the rare legume. This moth had been previously thought to be extinct in Massachusetts. The diversity of the field is modest, however, and dominated with sunflowers.
Grant Request: Zoo New England’s Grassroots Wildlife Conservation is requesting funds to purchase seed, (shortgrass and tallgrass dry sand mix) to be used in an area covering ¼ acre, to increase the species diversity, allowing for greater diversity of pollinators and extending the bloom season. Two of the test plots will be located in the meadow where an area is mowed, while the remaining two test plots will be near a portion of the meadow that is untouched. The success rates of the pollinators in the two different spaces will be compared, specifically comparing the density of the wildflowers. The meadow is visible to about 200 daily walkers/bikers using the “Reformatory Branch Trail”, bordering the length of the meadow. Bryan Windmiller, Director of Conservation, hopes to clear a pathway in the field, providing walkers a greater opportunity to appreciate the pollinator meadow: observing bees, moths, butterflies, and flora.
Gaining Ground
Grant Category: Educational/Horticultural
Amount: $650
Organization Description: Gaining Ground is a non-profit organic farm in Concord where, with the help of hundreds of community volunteers, vegetables and fruits are grown and donated to area meal programs and food pantries.
Grant Request: Gaining Ground is requesting funds to go toward the installation of an additional hedgerow in their fields. They already installed two hedgerows in 2018, and one hedgerow in 2019 that was funded by the GCC for $650. The hedgerows provide a natural barrier between fields and offer many benefits to support the growing of organic produce including increased pollination, bird habitat for eating pests, habitat for beneficial insects, wind protection for crops, and biodiversity in the Gaining Ground fields. When full grown, the hedgerows will also provide protection from the cold during the shoulder season and shade in the summer season. The farm staff will work with volunteers to complete the hedgerow over the course of the 2020 growing season.
Minuteman Arc for Human Services, Inc.
Grant Category: Therapeutic/Educational/Horticultural
Amount: $730
Organization Description: Minuteman Arc provides a wide range of services to improve the lives of more than 850 children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities. Gardening is a therapeutic and beloved activity for hundreds of Minuteman Arc clients. Gardening activities are beneficial to Minuteman Arc clients in many ways, including improvement in mobility and fine motor skills, and promoting learning, teamwork, social interaction and problem solving skills.
Grant Request: Minuteman Arc is requesting funds to support their client-driven eco-friendly focus and sustain horticulture activities provided to their clients. Specifically, they are looking to increase water conservation by purchasing three rain barrel catchment containers for outdoor water. The water collected in the rain barrels will be used to water the plants in the green house and around the building. Also, in an effort to reduce the carbon footprint, Minuteman Arc is interested in establishing a dual-barrel composting unit to recycle plant/lawn waste and food scraps from cooking classes to create nutrient dense soil for the greenhouse and planters around the building. The clients will learn about conservation and recycling with the implementation of these new systems.
Minuteman Arc will also receive funds for the purchase of seedlings, seeds and loam containing fertilizer and compost for the onsite greenhouse and an offsite gardening program at the Rogers Community Garden Plot. The offsite program was created for clients who are better able to negotiate the grounds. Harvested vegetables are used in the meals at their group homes as well as in weekly cooking adventures in the Day Habilitation program.
Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House
Grant Category: Community Beautification
Amount: $1,000
Organization Description: The Orchard House (c. 1650) is most noted for the place where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set her beloved classic, Little Women in 1868. The home also has a rich history stretching back two centuries beforehand, as well as more than 100 years of life as a treasured historic site open to the public. There have been no major structural changes to the house since the Alcott’s time, with ongoing preservation efforts adhering to the highest standards of authenticity. The Concord School of Philosophy, founded by Amos Bronson Alcott and others in the transcendental movement, was located in the Hillside Chapel on the property of the Orchard House. The school provided lyceum-like series of summer lectures and discussion of philosophy in Concord from 1879 to 1888.
Grant Request: The Orchard House is requested funding for recreating the Little Women Garden in front of the main entrance that replicates each of the original individual selections of the Alcott sisters (Meg, Beth, Jo and Amy). A list of plants referenced in Bronson Alcott’s papers reflects plants favored by each girl. Because of the American Disability Act, the property is undergoing a significant change to improve the site circulation between The Orchard House and The School of Philosophy. These changes have disturbed the original Alcott sisters’ garden, resulting in an opportunity to refresh the garden and provide a meaningful, natural site for visitors to gain additional information on the Alcott sisters.