Three Harbors Garden Club News
2023 Conservation Study Conference, Jekyll Island
From November 7th-10th, 2023 The GCA hosted the 2023 Conservation Study Conference in Jekyll Island, Georgia. Conservation Committee Co-Chair, Pat Wolfert represented Three Harbors Garden Club. The three days included several outings to observe the conservation efforts of the Jekyll Island community. Members came away from the conference with a new appreciation for the environment.
Thanksgiving Centerpieces
On November 15th, 2023 members of THGC Floral Design and Local Civic Outreach Committees, in an effort to support our local community, created festive floral and herb Thanksgiving centerpieces to brighten the Huntington Senior Center’s dining room.
Our efforts were recognized by the directors of the Department of Human Services and the Senior Citizen’s Division.
Jan Pratt’s “A Woodland Garden” admitted to the Smithsonian Institution
2023 is proving to be a very big year for our own Jan Pratt. As if turning 100 years young on Thanksgiving Day wasn’t enough, her beautiful and beloved “A Woodland Garden” which she lovingly created with her late husband Jerry has been admitted to the Smithsonian Institution.
Jan joined THGC in 1965 and become the Club’s President in 1973. Her leadership continued beyond our Club as she later became Zone III Chair, Zone III Director, followed by First Vice President of the Garden Club of America. In 1995 she was elected President of the GCA which today includes over 200 Clubs and 18,000 members. Her accomplishments while President of the GCA included:
• Overseeing the transfer of GCA’s investment portfolio to professional money managers.
• Overseeing the relocation of GCA’s headquarters to its current address on East 60th Street.
• Presiding over the renovation of the Central Park Conservatory Garden on 105th Street.
Jan remained active in GCA following her presidency as a GCA committee member, and as a horticulture and a photography judge. Jan’s plants and cut specimens have won many blue ribbons at GCA and club flower shows. She also shared her beautiful plants as cuttings at our Club’s horticulture workshops, many of which took place in her greenhouse and plant room.
In 2012, at the GCA Annual Meeting in Savannah, Jan was awarded the GCA’s highest award, the Lifetime Achievement Medal for her “outstanding record of accomplishments in horticulture and environmental conservation.”
The citation reads:
Presented to Jan Offutt Pratt in recognition of her extraordinary leadership and horticultural achievement on both the local and national levels over the many years that she has been a member of The Garden Club of America.
The acceptance of “A Woodland Garden” into the Smithsonian Institution is the capstone of a truly amazing career in all aspects of horticulture. Jan is truly a gift to the world of gardening.
Laura Blumin wins the Garden Club of America’s prestigious Medal of Merit
Citation: With deep appreciation for her dedicated and outstanding leadership, supportive enthusiasm, creative contributions and steadfast commitment to our club.
During the eleven years that Laura Blumin has been a member of the Three Harbors Garden Club, she has contributed immeasurably to almost every area of the Club. From chairing the Program Committee the year after she joined to serving as Spring Luncheon Chair for three years, 2nd Vice President, 1st Vice President and President, she has shown an unwavering commitment to our club. Other committees she has chaired or co-chaired include Visiting Gardens and Photography.
Her hard work, enthusiasm and leadership have not gone unnoticed as she has won numerous awards from both the GCA as well as Three Harbors Garden Club. These include The Julia Fairchild Medal, the Nancy Gay “Best in Show” Award, the GCA Club Photography Award, the Jan Pratt Award for Outstanding Continued Service as well as awards for her entries into a number of flower shows.
As our most recent President, Laura navigated the club through the Covid pandemic, arranging for frequent Zoom meetings and “safe” activities so that members would feel a sense of belonging despite the mandated lockdown. In addition, she oversaw the creation of the club’s first website, and took on the task of keeping the club relevant through social media.
Laura is truly a treasure to the Three Harbors Garden Club.
THGC Receives Restoration Initiative Grant from the Garden Club of America
A letter from our immediate Past President, Laura Blumin
Dear Three Harbors Garden Club Members,
You may be aware that the GCA established the Restoration Initiative program in 2017, responding to the urgent needs caused by catastrophic storms, hurricanes, floods, fires and mudslides and assisting member clubs involved in public landscape restoration and conservation projects. These grants are awarded in limited numbers. Prior to this year, only seventeen grants, totalling $170,000 have been awarded to clubs across the country.
Today, the Civic Improvement Committee at GCA (Linda Fraser, Jennifer Lawrence & Chris Duncan) notified us that its 2023 Restoration Initiative is awarding a $10,000 grant to THGC to be contributed to the Tree Restoration Program at the Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve. You’ll recall the September 2021 Hurricane Ida microburst, which toppled over 200 trees at Caumsett, many of which had towered at 80-90 feet. Trees in the southern area of the park were ravaged. Trails and buildings that were canopied in greenery and shade for over 100 years became barren. Many of these trees were in Frederick Law Olmsted and Marian Cruger Coffin’s original landscape designs for this “Gold Coast” estate.
The Caumsett Foundation established the Tree Restoration Program to help address this enormous loss, especially in the front of the park. The Caumsett Foundation is partnering with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to have replaced and maintained over 60 trees, including flowering cherries, statuesque elms, American lindens and a variety of other tree species. We feel that the replanting of the lost trees is even more important on the tails of last year’s Olmsted’s 200th birthday celebration.
We worked with Janet Barone, President of the Executive Board of Caumsett State Historic Park to highlight to the GCA the importance of the Tree Restoration Program. Furthermore, we explained to the GCA that members of THGC are energetic participants in the Caumsett community and the Club itself frequently hosts events in the Caumsett Classrooms to promote education to the surrounding community. THGC’s walking club, ‘Clematis Walking Group’, frequently walks the many paths sharing fresh air, collecting seeds for future educational programs and the love of gardening together. Additionally, THGC’s Partners For Plants (P4P) Project has been partnering with Caumsett for a few years already planting areas of specific natives and pollinators in order to bring back the Checkerspot Butterfly to LI.
The Caumsett Foundation is pleased with this outcome and we are organizing a private walking tour of the Tree Restoration area, currently being planned for May 2023. Keep your eyes out for more details!
I’m very proud that the GCA has recognized THGC for taking a leadership role in restoring, improving and protecting the environment in our community.
Sincerely,
Laura Blumin
THGC Past President
Rob Crafa, Coordinator of the North Shore Oyster Bay Gardening Program, Presented the Elizabeth Abernathy Hull Award
The Three Harbors Garden Club Spring Luncheon 2022 Fundraiser was celebrated on May 5th, where Rob Crafa, the Coordinator of the North Shore Oyster Gardening Program, was with the 2022 Elizabeth Abernathy Hull Award. Rob is the driving force behind the successful efforts to support the local bays in the Long Island Sound by using oysters’ natural water-filtering qualities, which helps to restore unfarmable water back to its original, healthy state. Rob has served as Executive Director of Friends of the Bay and as the Founding Executive Director of The Waterfront Center in Oyster Bay. He was a co-chair of the Oyster Festival and initiated Friends of the Bay’s water quality monitoring program and the popular Bay Day event. He has also served as a Coastal Resource Specialist for the New York State Department of State and is currently the Waterfront Director for SUNY Maritime College.
Over the past five years, Rob’s Community Oyster Garden program is estimated to have involved more than 200 students under the age of 16 across eleven communities, including schools such as Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington, Oyster Bay, Syosset and Locust Valley as well as Friends Academy and the Portledge School, among others. To date the Community Shellfish Gardening Program has raised over 400,000 oysters or enough to filter 20 million gallons of water each day. Some student volunteers have gone on to use the program as their inspiration for school science fairs, with many showing just how quickly one oyster can filter a five-gallon water tank filled with algae. The answer: about 3½ hours! This program has grown and grown!
Rob Crafa did not realize when he arrived that he was receiving an award, and he was so very honored, happy and surprised. On behalf of the Scholarship Committee of The Garden Club of America, THGC was happy to present the 2022 Elizabeth Abernathy Hull Award and check from the GCA to Rob Crafa.
Presenting GCA awards is a unique way to honor those who inspire us and Rob does just that! This award celebrates individuals who, through working with children under 16 years of age in horticulture and the environment, have inspired their appreciation of the beauty and fragility of our planet. Miss Hull, for whom the award is named, was an active member of the Ridgefield Garden Club. Her concern for the environment and commitment to common-sense horticulture practices were ahead of our national mindfulness.
THGC is thankful to Rob Crafa for having an important influence on young people and hope they continue their wonderful work. Congratulations and thank you to Rob Crafa!
