Garden Club of LBI grants donated funds to local organizations hurt by Sandy

A group of organizations are the beneficiaries of a canceled fundraiser for The Garden Club of Long Beach Island last December.

Photo by Ryan Morrill
The Garden Club of LBI will create flower
interpretations of members' artwork at its
"Art in Bloom Show" Thursday, May 9.

The club recently awarded $4,000 in funds donated from the ticket proceeds of its 48th annual Holiday House Tour, a two-day tour that was canceled in December due to Superstorm Sandy. The funds were given to local organizations that were impacted by the disaster, including Alliance for a Living Ocean, the Long Beach Township Recycling Department, Terrapin Nesting Project, Marine Mammal Stranding Center, Clean Ocean Action and Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey. Donations were also given to first responders in Stafford Township and on Long Beach Island.

“We tried to give to people that were cleaning up the ocean, cleaning up the bay, cleaning up the beach, helping the terrapins, the wildlife and dune grass plantings,” said Beverly Reitinger, the garden club's president. “We tried to hit every section of the Island so that we didn’t just concentrate on the township. We tried to give something that would be across the board. We also wanted to give something to Manahawkin because they were so devastated. We just tried to spread it around so that everybody got a little something.”

The Garden Club’s annual “Art in Bloom Show,” which showcases members’ artwork with corresponding flower arrangements using natural plants, will be open to the public at the Harvey Cedars Bible Conference, between 2 and 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 9. The event is usually open only to club members, but will act as a “thank you” to the community for showing the club such generosity during the wake of the storm.

“It’s really to give something back to the community,” said Reitinger. “After the storm a lot of people opened up their homes for us to use for our meetings; they donated tickets to help us fundraise. Everybody in the community has been so helpful to us. We met at the Holy Innocents Church, the Brant Beach Yacht Club and the Foundation. A lot of the florists and other landscaping companies always give us advice for us to put in our newsletters that we pass on to our members.

“It’s just a gesture to get people out to see flowers, to see springtime, to see something nice instead of gloom and doom. It’s just for people to have an enjoyable afternoon, like a walk through the garden,” she added.

For more information about the club, visit thegardencluboflbi.com.

— Kelley Anne Essinger

This article was published in The SandPaper.