Garden Club is ready to bloom into this school year with new projects, members, activities, and gardens. The club that you may not have known existed is coming into the 2017-2018 school year strong, and they are looking to grow their membership.

A major problem for Garden Club right now is their leadership. They lost all of their seniors last year to college, and now sophomores are stepping up to lead the club. One of the club’s sponsors, Mr. Bendelow, says it this way.

“We had a group lead last year, that really were among the first members of the club in their Freshman year. They left a lot of good structure in place, so their legacy in the club lives on. It would be nice to have really knowledgeable people, but we have learned to move on.”

Because of the loss of past members of Garden Club, they are relying on a virtually entirely new member base to run the club’s many activities.

“It’s been really vital to have the new Freshmen to help out… we’ve had so many new people show up and it has really been great to have all those new hands,” says Sophomore Brenton Russo, who is one of the sophomores that stepped up to lead the club this year after being a part of it last year.

Russo is called a “Garden Steward”. This title is given to him by the sponsors and it allows him to “have a special pass, and during his lunch period go to the gardens and do work to finish projects,” according to Mr. Bendelow.

Another Garden Club sponsor, Mrs. Yun. says, “Membership is our main concern right now. We want people to take us seriously and for us to be well-known around the school.” Advertisement and publicity is the path to such exposure, and Garden Club knows this. They have begun to make many plans to help their name get out there.

“We will make T-Shirts, which is coming very close in the agenda, as well as reaching out to YTV to shoot a commercial,” says Mr. Bendelow. The club runs two gardens, and they have many plants in each garden. To get the money for the materials and tools needed for these gardens, the club applies for grants. “We have a couple cross-partnerships with places like, “Whole Foods” who we get grants from. We just got one recently and will actually be applying for a new one very soon. Along with getting money, that kind of gets our name out there in the process,” says Mr. Bendelow.

Hanna Homan, a sophomore, is another student leader with Russo. She manages the social media for Garden Club, and helps out with management of committees. “There is something for everyone in Garden Club… I was asked to take over as our media manager, meaning I get to control what goes on our website, Instagram, Snapchat and etc. It’s a position I’m proud of and truly enjoy!” says Homan.

Garden Club is focused on forming committees early on in the year to take care of their many internal tasks as well as external advertisements and projects. These committees are made up of club members who volunteered for the extra responsibility. Additionally they are led and facilitated completely by the students. “We have committees of photographers, artists, growers, planters, there’s always something for everyone to do,” says Homan.

Coming up, Garden Club will be participating in the annual Homecoming hallway decoration competition amongst the majority of clubs here at York. So watch for their designs in the “Red White and Duke” contest, and be sure to cast your vote for their hallway. Also, come out to Garden Club’s meetings every Wednesday in the courtyard from 3:15-4:15.

Note: On Wednesday September 20, Garden Club meets in A373 at the same time.

Follow Garden Club on social media!

Instagram: @yorkgardenclub