Formed in 1949, the goals of the Chippewa Garden Club founding members continue to be our same goals today:

“To share a love for gardening, to study the fine art of flower design, to aid in the

protection of native plants and wildlife, and to encourage civic betterment.”

In its 73-year history, the Chippewa Garden Club has won numerous awards for its Flower Shows and Civic Projects. Eight times the Club has been awarded the prestigious “Garden Club of the Year” by the Garden Club of Ohio (GCO). The first award was given in 1971 for our work in 1970; the most recent award was in 2018 for our work in 2017.

The Chippewa Garden Club is a member of the Cleveland District of the Garden Club of Ohio;  the Central Atlantic Region of the State Garden Clubs, Inc., National Garden Clubs, Inc. and Cleveland Botanical Gardens (now Holden Forests and Gardens).

We generally meet the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Brecksville Human Services Center, Activity Room A, 2 Community Drive, Brecksville, Ohio.  Please check this site often for updates of meetings, workshops, and community involvement.

Garden Club Executive Steering Committee:

• Vice President – Simonne Benoit
• Secretary –  Sandy Ladebue
  
• Treasurer – Kathy Habib
  
• Finance – Lynne Evans
  
• Historian – Margaret DeWolf
• Past President – Jo Ann Bartsch

Our Affiliations:

Chippewa Garden Club belongs to National Garden Clubs, Inc. and the Garden Club of Ohio.  We participate in their activities and programs and share information via websites and Facebook pages.

Garden Club of Ohio (GCO):

Marlene Hatton, the current GCO President, showed a very passionate video demonstrating her President’s Project during the 2021 Convention and during her Installation.  Here’s a summary of her President’s Message.

For the next two years, Marlene would like to focus on a global issue – a difference from the more local issues GCO has focused on in the past. Her issue: reducing plastic waste in the environment, thereby improving, among other things, water quality.
She recognizes it’s an enormous task since plastic has crept into our lives in multiple ways. It breaks into micro particles that have been found everywhere on earth. They are in our soil, in our food, and it takes hundred of years for them to degrade.
Marlene recognizes that such an enormous problem might overwhelm us individually. But she is challenging us personally, as a family, as a Garden Club to adopt at least three changes.
As to Chippewa Garden Club, what will we do? Let’s begin thinking – maybe as a group we can say no to plastic straws, water bottles, cups and plates. What more could we do? We’re working on developing a recyling project hopefully combining education and action for our 2022 projects.

During the 2021-2022 school year we helped students in our elementary schools collect plastic caps and lids.  Over 1,800 pounds were collected in partnership with the Emerald Necklace Garden Club.  Those caps and lids were recycled into three new benches for our new Brecksville- Broadview Heights Elementary School that opened August, 2022.  Here’s a photo taken at the dedication, September 29, 2022.  And there will be another bench for the planned Recess Garden Area at the school.  Stay tuned!!

National Garden Clubs, Inc.:

President Mary Warshauer’s primary focus within her administration’s projects is to get us all outdoors.  She says:

“After all, playing outdoors is what gardeners do best!”

Chippewa’s community gardening programs both for adults (Greene Acres Community Garden) and children (Recess Gardening at Highland Drive School) are right in line with those efforts.  Watch and see how we expand those efforts to support more pollinator gardens in our communities.