Volunteer Opp's Bulletin
December 2019 || Volume 5 Issue 11
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In This Month's Edition of Vol Opp's:
- Activity Spotlights:
- Shelby MGs Celebrated Alabama's Bicentennial
- Shelby MGs Held a Harvest Reunion
- Autauga County MG Garden - Everyone Wins!
- Baldwin County MG Shout-Out!
- Jackson County MGA Gets Ready for a New Year
- Morgan County MGA Facebook - A Slam Dunk
- Volunteers Needed For The MG Helpline
- Lunch And Learn Schedule
- Upcoming Events and Announcements
- Harvest for Health Volunteers Needed
- 2019 Webinar Series
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Shelby MGs Help Celebrate Alabama's Bicentennial
(Kate Vogel)
SCMGA Member Tommie Harrison spearheaded a project at Thompson Intermediate School to help a teacher who received a grant from the Alabama Bicentennial Commission. They planned and built a small scale replica of the old Thompson home in Alabaster. This will be an outdoor classroom for the school. SCMGA donated to the project and helped with landscaping.
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Above are some images from the SCMGA Fall Harvest Reunion Dinner
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Shelby MGs Held a Harvest Reunion
(Myra Healy)
We had a wonderful turnout for our annual Harvest Reunion Dinner Meeting in October. Almost 60 people attended! We had a great venue at the Shelby County Airport. Plenty of room for everyone to be comfortable. There were so many items in the silent auction that everyone who participated left with something. Many people left with a lot of somethings! Many thanks to our Harvest Dinner committee for doing such a great job planning this fun event. It was a big success.
Our new intern class has completed their studies and graduated on the 6th of November. They are all smart, accomplished and enthusiastic volunteers. Congratulations to them and all of our Shelby County Master Gardeners! We are generous people who love to share our knowledge and experiences with others who love learning about plants too.
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Autauga County MG Demonstration Garden
(Debbie Boutelier)
In Autauga County, our demonstration garden continues to help our neighbors. This has been an on-going project for 15 years where all of the produce grown in the garden is distributed to low-income individuals and families through the Autauga Interfaith Care Center. With the addition of some new growing techniques, we have been able to increase our harvest 25% this year. We applied for and received a grant through Mid-South RC&D earlier this year. With those funds, we will replace some of the aging infrastructure and continue to implement trellising systems to grow up and take better advantage of the square feet we have available. The garden is also used for educating the public on vegetable growing topics. With the location of the garden adjacent to our city library, we have lots of walk-in interest in the project and answer many gardening questions while we are there working. Classes are held to give hands-on experience in the garden. We’ve even used this as a recruiting tool and have gained several of our Master Gardeners by them stopping to see what we are doing and getting hooked!
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Baldwin Master Gardeners Celebrate Their Helpline
(Julian Walthall)
BCMG Helpline volunteers closed their Baldwin office for the 2019 season, November 14, with a barbecue lunch honoring the numerous volunteers who staffed it over the summer and fall. Elemer Vick, master chef, prepared a tasty barbecue pork shoulder and barbecued chicken wings. Several volunteers brought side dishes. The occasion was to thank the numerous volunteers who have worked the Helpline as we were able to staff it all the days and hours we had agreed. Terri Wallace is our Helpline coordinator; Denise Denniston is our office manager, and the following MG volunteers worked on various days in 2019: Fran Ables, Jeff Doughtery, Margaret Griffin, Kim Musson, Frank Rubino, Barbara Schwartz, Kay Smith, Sharon Smith, Marta Stouts, Elmer Vick and Julian Walthall. Mike McQueen, ACES Regional Extension Agent, also joined us for lunch. Over lunch we all expressed appreciation for the Helpline as a way to serve the public, as a peaceful time to do some of our own plant research and a way to be enriched by other MGs’ plant knowledge and experiences when we work together.
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Jackson County MGs Are Preparing for a Busy New Year
(Bill Caudill)
In support of Arbor Day and the Scottsboro Tree Commission, we continue helping them with the February “Arbor Day Tree Giveaway”. We assist in seedling distribution and help answer questions about the trees and needed tree care.
In fact, our little group of volunteers has many projects. Our on-going work on Jackson County Park trails continues and expands. We embarked upon recovering several neglected and overgrown beds. This required rescuing perennials for replanting, eradication of invasives, and preparing ground to replant. We submitted a grant request in support of this recovery work. Work days are Wednesdays and Thursdays - on trails with Jerry Akins starting @ 7:00 AM, Wednesdays; and Thursdays in flower beds with Lily Noble, starting @ 7:00. This park gives many benefits to Scottsboro.
In January, we'll once again help the Extension Office get ready for their Annual Chemical Applicator Workshop. And we're excited to continue the Lunch and Learn classes at the local Scottsboro Public Library.
Ready or not, 2020, here we come!
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Focus on Facebook Impact on our Followers
(Vicki Morese)
Volunteers in Morgan County play to their strengths and our own Rita Baker is no exception. Rita is our guru for the Morgan County Master Gardeners Association Facebook page. There are a total of 5 editors for our page, but Rita selects and posts 90 percent of the Facebook posts you see on our page.
The material she shares is timely with science-based information. Many of our Facebook followers gain valuable information about topics of interest to gardeners and important concerns or issues from www.aces.edu. With all of the sources available on the internet, Rita has an impact on our followers by providing alternatives to old wives’ tales, sharing links to articles on a topic that offer science-based solutions to a gardening challenge. She shares many Alabama Extension Office posts especially those from the Alabama Master Gardener Helpline. Our Facebook page is also a resource for the community to ask us gardening and horticulture questions, either by a post to our page or in a private message. Any of our 5 editors can answer questions or provide relevant links. And according to Facebook, we have less than a 2-hour response time to inquiries.
Our readers find our post relevant, informative, and sometimes just entertaining. As a result, we have increased our followers from 1,811 in January, 2019, to 2,449 as of November 17, 2019. Our followers are mainly from Morgan, Lawrence, Limestone and Madison Counties with 814 followers, and Moulton in Lawrence County with 254 followers of the Morgan County Master Gardeners Facebook page.
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Helpline Volunteers Needed!
Do you know your stuff when it comes to gardening? Have a passion for helping others? Wouldn't it be fun to learn things you don't know, while helping others?
If you said yes to any of those questions, please volunteer to work the Alabama Master Gardener Helpline. Volunteers are needed in the following counties: Autauga, Elmore, Lee, Montgomery, Jefferson, Chilton, Etowah, Madison, Lauderdale, Baldwin, and Mobile
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Volunteers Needed to Mentor Harvest for Health Participants
Master Gardeners are needed to mentor in Harvest for Health (2020), a 5-year joint program between the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Alabama Extension’s Home Grounds Team. We pair MGs with cancer survivors in order to study the health and healing benefits of gardening. Mentors are expected to visit with the participant twice monthly, once for a garden visit and once in a phone call. Build new friendships and share a hobby you love with others! Contact Renee Thompson, ACES-Harvest for Health Outreach Coordinator, at 334-826-1590 or thomprw@auburn.edu.
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A message from Renee Thompson:
"We are still in need of wonderful, caring MGs to be mentors in the following counties:
Blount
Calhoun, Cherokee, Coffee, Covington, Cullman
Dale, Dekalb
Houston,
Jackson, Jefferson
Lauderdale
Madison, Marshall, Montgomery, Morgan
Shelby, St. Clair
Tuscaloosa
'One is nearer to God's heart in a garden than in anywhere else on Earth.' - Dorthy Frances Gurney
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December Lunch and Learn Schedule
(Events start at 12:00pm and participants are encouraged to bring a sack lunch)
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December 4th, Montgomery
- A Natural Christmas: Armory Learning Center
- December 5h, Autauga
- Backyard Water Features: Trinity United Methodist Church
- December 10th, Elmore
- Artistic Flower Pressing: First Presbyterian Church, Wetumpka
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Reintroduction of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker! December 6th, 2019
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Do you have a cool story or project you'd like to share? We'd love to hear what your MG association is doing in your community. Send your stories to Kerry Smith at smithkp@auburn.edu.
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