President's Letter - June 2022

Greetings, Garden Friends –

This is my last President’s letter – the next newsletter will be the summer edition, and you will hear from Cynthia Druckenbrod, who will be installed as President of SLGC at our Annual Meeting on June 28. Look for information in this newsletter and in a special invitation, and note that the time is 12:30, not 11:30 as listed in the Directory.

I have enjoyed my two years serving as President of Shaker Lakes Garden Club! I started in April 2020 as pandemic lockdowns were just going into effect (a little early because the Rae-Grants were moving and had to be out of their house before May). I soon realized that we had to be ready to make quick changes in schedules and plans for social gatherings. Think about the summer of 2020 – new guidelines and notices about closings were being publicized every week. We got together for small patio parties, but we couldn’t have our Annual Meeting, or the Provisional Tea. By phone and email I was in touch with the women who were tasked with planning events like the Joint Meeting (virtual in 2020), SLGC programs (done virtually when possible), and all of us spent much more time in our gardens because we couldn’t go anywhere.

For me it feels like Long Covid, not in the illness sense but in the long haul of dealing with it and trying to anticipate changes that would have to be made. In March of 2020 we thought “closed for three weeks” was radical, and we had no idea that mutations would continue to disrupt our lives for more than two years. But we really are learning to “live with it.” Our Board and Membership meetings have been in person, our Annual Meeting will take place at Annamarie Brankovsky’s beautiful house and garden, and the Provisional Tea will go forward at Judith McMillan’s on July 12. We’re expert at recognizing masked friends, and I am confident that our members have done everything possible to protect themselves and others. None of our events have been super-spreaders. Thank you, all of you, for that!

I have everyone in the club to thank for making my years as President rewarding and fun, and you can look forward to two great years with Cynthia at the helm. She is equipped with a level of horticultural expertise that few of us can claim, and she shares it generously with good humor and energy. She’s a “spark plug.” She is also a dear friend, and I am happy to be turning the job over to such a warm, thoughtful, and capable person. Have fun, Cynthia!

Leigh Fabens