This webpage includes the last reports of the Civic Beautification committee and the first report of the newly activated Environment committee. Due to the overlap in functions of these two committees, the Board of Trustees felt that it made sense to combine the two as one, to be known as the Civic/Environment committee.
2023-2024 — Deborah Hirsch, Environment Committee Chair
​Our Environment Committee was restored to active duty during this year. We started with an engaged group of members who reviewed lots of ideas about how we should approach this important aspect of Club work, beginning with educating ourselves about best garden practices. Some members wrote articles for the website under the new Environment tab, others submitted reference opportunities on the subject. We all agreed that collaboration with other like-minded organizations should be encouraged. Our first public effort was a clean-up of Upper Montclair Business District in early March. On a rainy Saturday we met at member Amy South’s Moss & More shop and set out to collect trash and photograph tree conditions. Later in the year we fashioned a new Civic Beautification and Environmental Responsibility Committee, with the following mission:
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"The mission of this Committee is to encourage environmentally responsible beautification of our town’s outdoor green spaces. This Committee’s goal is to act as a resource for individual and organizational stewardship for planning and plant selection and to provide physical help where appropriate. We will offer advice on ways to beautify town businesses and create floral displays when requested. We will search for existing gardens that exemplify sustainable practices and businesses whose plantings or containers show significant effort in the use of pollinator friendly and native plants. We will highlight these examples on social media and website platforms. We will interface with other committees of our Club to learn, educate, and share ideas".
2023-2024 — Marie Donnelly, Civic Beautification Chair; Susan Benner, Vice Chair
The Civic Beautification Committee continued improving the outdoor spaces of Montclair businesses and residences by planting urns in front of Church Street stores and providing landscape designs for open spaces on Seymour Street. In keeping with our new cooperation and upcoming merger with the Environmental Committee, we encourage the use of native and pollinator plants. A generous grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation helped enormously in our efforts.
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Plans for beautifying open spaces at Montclair High School and Bradford School are in the works.
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Once again, this year more than 25 of our members participated in Art in Bloom at the Montclair Art Museum. Their interpretations of and meaningful insights into works of art displayed at the Museum are more examples of the many ways the Club interacts with the community.
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We photographed local gardens that promote the use of native plants and pollinator species. By promoting these on social media and in the local press we encouraged other gardeners to follow these examples.
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In the future, we look forward to our presence as an integral part of the new Civic/Environmental Committee.
2022-2023 — Marie Donnelly, Chair; Susan Benner Vice Chair
The Civic Beautification Committee meets several times a year to brainstorm and implement ideas to help beautify the community.
We are continuing with plans to install a pop-up flower/plant design in Montclair next year and hoping this will become an annual event that will draw people from neighboring towns.
Addressing the needs of businesses asking for help is another way we serve the community. In 2023 the Montclair Ambulance Unit at 95 Walnut Street requested help with improving the look of their building. We rose to the challenge and installed two new planters in front of their building in time for the Walnut Street Fair on May 7, 2023.
2021-2022 — Marie Donnelly, Chair; Susan Benner Vice Chair
​More than 25 of our Members participated in Art in Bloom at the Montclair Art Museum. Their interpretations of works of art on display offered meaningful insights to one of the many ways the Garden Club of Montclair impacts the community and supports the Museum.
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The committee is very enthusiastic about developing a long-range project to install "pop-up" flower design displays in Montclair 's business districts. Members are consulting with local crafters and creating a proposal to submit to the Township for a yearly event.
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Conversations continue enthusiastically with the Montclair Public Library Foundation to beautify the library plazas, host a farm stand, provide space for native plants, and promote sustainability initiatives.
2020-2021 — Marie Donnelly, Chair
Due to the COVID pandemic and resulting restrictions in 2020–21, the Civic Beautification Committee was unable to complete its planned community projects. The Committee will renew efforts to engage the community in the upcoming year.
2020-2021 — Cheryl Slutzky, Chair
It was a rather quiet year for Civic Beautification. While we looked forward to planning for Art in Bloom at the Montclair Art Museum and a "May in Montclair" coordinated experience in the township, COVID-19 had other plans!
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In 2019, the merchants in Upper Montclair and the South End business districts produced some lovely outdoor floral displays. There were no such displays in 2020 and no little Garden Club of Montclair cards of congratulation appeared.
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Here's hoping we see those little cards inserted into happy, creative displays — and that we all fare better in 2021.