OSFGC President's Acceptance Speech, Karen Brown, June 17, 2009, Lincoln City, OR

"Growing Green"

Thank you for the privilege of serving as your President for the next term. It has taken me 32 years of garden club experience to get here, and I find that garden club membership is a very precious part of my life experience. As your registrations came in, I was amazed to find how many of you I consider my friends. I hope to increase that list even more by next year.

Some time ago, I chose as my theme the words "Growing Green". Now I find that "green" has become increasingly popular. Both of these words fit us very nicely, and that is good.

There are many ways of growing. As gardeners, in horticulture, we are growing plants. Growing also means getting bigger--we want our clubs to grow with increased membership. And it means getting better, which we do by learning about horticulture, and learning to enjoy and create art with floral design, stretching our minds and our creativity. We are growing stronger and wiser with learning and friendship.

Green has several levels of meaning too. The color green from the chlorophyll in our plants is the neutral color that unifies our designs. Green denotes unripeness, freshness, youth. Things that are green in that sense are growing and getting better, as we are. Green also means environmentally kind. That signifies our commitment to conservation, to doing things in a way that is "green" and caring for our earth.

We can apply "Growing Green" to our Garden Club experience this term in several ways.

1. Each member can commit to learning more about the environment of the earth and commit to changing just one habit, or more if possible, to decrease our impact on the world around us. Imagine the effect of 3000 people doing one more good thing. It won't be hard. Good habits may even save us money and make what we do more enjoyable. Maybe you choose to use organic fertilizers, which will make your soil and your plants healthier. Or maybe you can find a less wasteful way to apply water that will improve your water bill and the growth of your garden. Can you grow some vegetables for yourself, to enjoy the fresh flavor and the feeling of accomplishment? That would be a "growing green" habit for sure.

2. "Growing from our Roots". Garden club roots go deep. Oregon is one of the Charter Members of National Garden Clubs, Inc. Some of our member clubs have been part of OSFGC ever since then, and we are very proud of them. Let's help our younger clubs put down deep roots too. We still respect the values that brought our grandmothers and other garden club ladies together to do good in their communities. Let's look at what we used to do and value, and bring some of those projects back. We need to learn what went before to plan the future. Yes, we are busier and more electronic now, but we are still united by friendship, love of family and community, and we still value working with our young people to bring them closer to the earth.

Modern studies show that a connection with plants and the earth has great value for healing sick bodies and troubled minds. Nature is therapeutic and makes all of us stronger. Didn't we already know that when we implemented our various garden therapy projects? NGC President Renee's "Golden Days" project is a wonderful reminder to show our respect for our older members. Help them keep in touch with garden club by planting green and yellow daffodils across our land.

3. Each new OSFGC President chooses a project to focus on. Mine will be a project that is dear to me because of my love of forests, and my connection with the fire service through my husband, Wally, who has been a volunteer firefighter for over 30 years, and served recently at two of the large wildland fires in Oregon.

I'll call my project "Penny Pines for Oregon". This is a project we can all be part of in our own way. Donations will be sent to NGC, which has a partnership with the US Forest Service to replace appropriate trees in forests damaged by nature. It began with schoolchildren donating small coins, like we did for "March of Dimes" in the little country school I attended when I was a kid. It was pennies to contribute to planting pines and other trees in damaged areas, hence the name, "Penny Pines".

Each $68 donation to Penny Pines helps reforest a one acre "plantation". There is no way for me to guess what goal would be appropriate for us to aim for. How many acres could a state garden club group be expected to donate? If each of us gives a penny, it will be nearly half an acre. With a quarter, we can plant over 10 acres. At a dollar each, 44 acres can be accomplished. Shall we aim for fifty?

I'd like to see us raise this money by collecting spare change, picking up beverage cans along a remote roadside, having plant sales, doing yard work for someone who can't, and any other ways you or your club can think of to work a little, give a little, have some fun and, at the same time, see how many $68 donations we can gather as a state. Let's see how many acres of trees we can contribute to our beloved Oregon during this term.

Give me your ideas, and we'll work together on "Growing Green" during these next two years, growing ourselves with learning, our clubs with interested new members, and our forests with our donations. Thank you ahead of time for your confidence and your support.