TREX Community Partnership: As part of our club’s sustainability effort, we began collecting soft plastic beginning at the end of May to EARN A PARK BENCH FOR SPICE BUSH. The launch of this program is the result of efforts by club member Anastazia Owsiak, who investigated and followed through on our plan to collaborate with Traprock Ridge Land Trust (into which West Hartford Land Trust recently merged). Other groups and organizations in town also participate in this TREX Community Partnership Program, but participant collection totals are maintained separately to determine eligibility for a bench. We strongly encourage our club members and their friends to deposit their soft plastic in WHGC/West Hartford Land Trust/Traprock Land trust bins inside the South Main Street entrance to the Noah Webster Library main branch and inside the entrance to the Bishops Corner Library branch. We will shortly add the collection bin at the Faxon branch to our sites.
We are grateful to the team of volunteers that has stepped forward to collect and weigh deposits to our bins. Since starting in May, we have picked up more than 39 pounds of soft plastic at the Noah Webster and Bishops Corner Libraries. Our goal is to pick up 500 pounds by the end of October to earn a TREX bench made with their recycled plastic lumber for the Bird Sanctuary Garden in Spicebush Park. Thanks to Madeleine Hexter and her husband Andy for initiating the program by picking up at the main library and the Bishops Corner branch. Gina Cocchiola will begin helping at Bishops Corner shortly, and Anastasia Owsiak will begin picking up at Faxon Branch soon. Garden Club members Amrita Johns, Julie Przybycien, and Cecily Vasington have also offered to help.
Background: As stated on the TREX website, “Plastic bags and film packaging are important durable and lightweight protection for food and merchandise in transit. But these materials CANNOT be recycled in most curbside carts or single stream programs.” Thankfully, we are providing specific collection bins for bags and film to be recycled!
Earth Day and Earth Night: Civics Projects Committee participated in Earth Day festivities at the West Hartford Town Hall on April 22, 2023 by invitation from co-sponsors of the fair – West Hartford Commission on Conservation and Environment and the Foundation for West Hartford Public Schools. We participated in the Earth Night Fair at Hall High School on Friday, June 2, 2023, where students and community members showcased sustainability efforts.
In both cases, the Garden Club’s info booth was divided into three sections: first, a very popular hands-on activity for all ages making wildflower seed balls to toss around town, to promote growing native pollinator plants; second, certified CT Master Gardeners provided answers to visitors’ plant problem questions, and offered handouts related to native plants, pollinators, and invasives; and third, a Master Composter Exhibit with a Meet-the-Worms Vermiculture exhibit and lots of information and ideas about home composting was made assembled. Our efforts were very much appreciated on both dates!
Thanks to garden club member Master Gardeners Susan Grew, Gina Trusiewicz, and Beth Ann Loveland Sennett, as well as to garden club members Lorraine Lodigiani and Julia Sauter (seed ball leaders) for their enormous contributions to this event.
We are so grateful to garden club Master Gardener Beth Ann Loveland Sennett as well as to garden club members Anastazia Owsiak and Lorraine Lodigiani, who guided the seed ball makers (over 60 seed balls were made, and we ran out of seeds!).