Longboat Key Garden Club hosts Arbor Day picnic

Longboat Key
Neighbors

The Longboat Key Garden Club pic(nic)ked a perfect day for their annual meeting on April 29. About 60 members and representatives from local organizations gathered at Bayfront Park to celebrate Arbor Day and learn about the past year of the club.

The club welcomed 10 organizations plus two scholarship recipients to their Arbor Day picnic at Bayfront Park. After enjoying the weather and watching some dolphins also have lunch, the attendees settled in to hear from each organization. Through grants, three scholarships and summer camp funding, the club donated a total of $73,660 around Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties over the past year.

Show Me the Money

Grants

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens field trips: $5,000
Mote Marine Laboratory camp scholarships: $3,420
Mote Marine Laboratory aquaculture research and technology: $5,000
St. Martha School hands-on teaching garden: $2,000
Save Our Seabirds: $10,000
Visible Men Academy edible garden project: $2,500
The Paradise Center expansion of garden beds: $2,000
Longboat Key Turtle Watch: $2,500
Boys and Girls Clubs of Sarasota and DeSoto counties: $2,500
Beautification projects at north and south fire stations: $3,000
Beautification project, tree lighting at Town Center Green: $3,000

Summer camps

For Longboat Key residents or children of a person employed on Longboat Key: $3,990

Scholarships

Chloe Schwab, University of Florida-Gainesville (Marine Sciences): $10,000
Carter Oleckna, Florida Gulf Coast University (Biology and Microbiology): $10,000
Cody Oleckna, Florida Gulf Coast University (Environmental Engineering): $10,000

Each organization present spoke about what the money will be used for. Many of the funds will go to summer camps, including at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, where six middle school children will be able to attend a full week of Sea Sleuth camp, at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Sarasota and DeSoto Counties, where 375 children will be able to take educational summer field trips, and at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, where 12 elementary school children will attend camp at both the downtown and Historic Spanish Point campuses.

Afterwards, attendees enjoyed lunch made by Chef Jean Caldwell from St. Martha Catholic School, which has received grants to establish and grow an edible garden at school. Attendees took home pesto made by the students and got to see some of the herbs and produce they've grown, like one oversized zucchini that got forgotten underneath some leaves.