The Garden Club of St. Petersburg, Inc.
New Meeting Location
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The Garden Club of St. Petersburg, Inc.
New Meeting Location
Email Address
Our Community Outreach activities and programs engage and serve the local community, support and raise awareness of our Garden Club’s mission, educate the public about gardening in Florida, and promote membership in the Garden Club. Funds raised in our fundraising events, supported with volunteer hours of service by all our members, enables our Community Outreach projects.
The Garden Club of St Petersburg currently engages in the following programs, scholarships, and philanthropy:
The largest community service project of the Garden Club is participating with the City of St. Petersburg for the annual 2-day Green Thumb Festival at Walter Fuller Park. The festival includes over 150 vendors of plants and gardening items, coordinated by the City Parks Department, as well as a Standard Flower Show put on by the Garden Club of St. Petersburg. In addition to putting on the flower show, GCSP volunteers help with children’s activities and hospitality.
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Several members of Flower Design Interest Group are annually invited to donate and display flower arrangements interpreting works of art at the Museum for several days for an event called “Art in Bloom”. This is a fund-raising event for the Museum, which has been very successful for the Museum.
This is an ongoing project of repurposing packaged seeds that are donated to be given away to individuals, libraries, and community gardens.
The largest community service project of the Garden Club is participating with the City of St. Petersburg for the annual 2-day Green Thumb Festival at Walter Fuller Park. The festival includes over 150 vendors of plants and gardening items, coordinated by the City Parks Department, as well as a Standard Flower Show put on by the Garden Club of St. Petersburg. In addition to putting on the flower show, GCSP volunteers help with children’s activities and hospitality.
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We support the FFGC trees program. We record of the number and kinds of trees planted, sold, or given away by Club members of GCSP during the year.
Club Members work with various Nursing Home Activities Directors in planning a garden therapy event with residents. We also regularly provide individual vases of recycled flowers to nursing homes which our members create during various club meetings.
The Garden Club of St. Petersburg purchased a Blue Star Memorial Marker for Coconut Park, a public park where the Club is located, and placed it as an addition to the existing memorial garden in front of the Garden Club building in 2013. It was dedicated on Veterans’ Day, November 11, 2014. The memorial bricks surrounding the Blue Star Memorial Marker are reserved for purchase to honor veterans: past, present, and future. The Blue Star Memorial Marker Program of the National Garden Clubs, Inc., began in 1945 to honor the men and women serving in the Armed Forces during World War II. The name was chosen for the star on flags displayed in homes and businesses denoting a family member serving. Garden clubs envisioned a ribbon of living memorial plantings traversing every state.
The designation of Blue Star Highways was achieved through petitions to the State Legislatures and cooperation with the Departments of Transportation. A uniform marker was designed to identify the Highway. The Blue Star Memorial Program grew to extend thousands of miles across the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii. All men and women who have served, are serving, or will serve in the Armed Forces of the United States are included. Markers continue to be dedicated each year along highways, at Veterans’ facilities, National Cemeteries, parks, and civic and historic sites, showing our appreciation for those who defend our country. No Marker may bear an individual’s name. These Markers are designed to pay tribute to the Armed Forces as a whole.
The Garden Club of St. Petersburg offers scholarships to qualified students interested in or studying Horticulture, landscaping, or the environment under an agreement with the University of Florida. The University of Florida Scholarship recipient is selected from qualified students by the university UF Department of Agriculture Life Sciences.
The Wekiva Youth Camp is an environmental education program begun in 1959 as a Junior Nature Camp where garden club volunteers helped to instill a love, concern, and desire to protect the flora and fauna of our beautiful state of Florida. The camp is owned and operated by FFGC in Apopka for students in grades 1-8. The GCSP either identifies yearly scholarship recipient(s) or provides a donation to the FFGC for the Wekiva program.
SEEK (Save the Earth’s Environment through Knowledge) is an annual 4-day Environmental Conference for high school students. The conference is sponsored by Florida Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc. (FFGC) for the purpose of instilling a love and respect for the REAL Florida in our youth through nature study, conservation, and protection of our environment for the future of our state and planet. The SEEK conference focuses on student initiative, leadership, and today’s critical environmental issues: 1) climate change, energy conservation, alternative energy, and sustainability; 2) water quality and quantity (water pollution and water conservation); 3) loss of wildlife habitat due to deforestation and development. The GCSP donates money annually to this program.
FFGC is spearheading an “Underwater Garden” with the Coral Reef Restoration Foundation based in Key Largo, Florida, off the Florida Keys. It involves propagating coral which can be planted to restore dying reefs. A new reef off Key Largo, and named for the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs, is being planted with “adopted” coral. Garden Clubs from all over the state sent in donations and the initial goal of $10,000 was reached to begin the project. FFGC members and clubs are able to adopt a coral rooting for $100 and sponsor the transplanting of the coral by the Foundation. When these reefs grow, they will be part of reversing the endangered status of the elkhorn and staghorn coral. This will provide a habitat for all sorts of tropical fish for our South Florida Reef, the 3rd largest reef in the world, behind only the Great Barrier Reef and the Belize Reef. The GCSP donates money annually to this project.
Tampa Bay Watch is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Tierra Verde and St. Petersburg, FL, dedicated to protecting and restoring the Tampa Bay estuary through community-powered restoration, education, and outreach programs. Founded in 1993, Tampa Bay Watch works to foster a healthy Tampa Bay watershed via habitat restoration, environmental education, citizen engagement, and advocacy. Their work has included planting over 1 million salt marsh grasses, installing crystal oyster reef units, and persistent cleanup efforts in the estuary. The GCSP donates money annually to this organization.
