Grassroots Garden Group's Inaugural Westchester Garden Walk was a smashing success! The walk, which occurred on Saturday, July 20th, included 7 gardens in the Highridge neighborhood of Westchester. Despite the heat, attendee turnout and feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Walkers, homeowners, and volunteers alike were all smiles as they gathered to support the Westchester Food Pantry. Grassroots Garden Group founder Bethanny Alexander expressed her thanks in a recent post: "My heart is overflowing with happiness and gratitude for everyone who made Westchester’s first garden walk a success. From our Grassroots’ members to the homeowners who shared their gardens to our financial supporters to our volunteers to our garden walk visitors...none of this could have happened without you."
Contributions from event sponsors, individual donors, and ticket holders totaled $2,700. Proceeds were donated to the Westchester Food Pantry, which serves hundreds of food insecure families from Westchester, Bellwood, Berkeley, Broadview, Hillside, Hines, La Grange Park, and Western Springs every month. Grassroots Garden Group currently supports the Westchester Food Pantry with an annual plant sale (held every spring) and an annual tulip bulb sale (held every fall). We are excited to support the pantry with a third event, and are already looking forward to next year's garden walk.
Garden walkers in attendance on Saturday were provided with the opportunity to complete an online survey of the event for the chance to win 1 of 2 gift certificates to Mary's Morning Mixup. The survey responses received will help Grassroots Garden Group to build upon its successes and address areas that require improvement. Our hope is that future garden walks will be even more enjoyable for guests and generate even greater contributions for the Westchester Food Pantry. Winners of the Mary's Morning Mixup gift certificates will be drawn at the next Grassroots Garden Group meeting on Monday, July 29th.
Winners of the garden walk raffle prizes were drawn after the walk and announced on our Facebook page on Sunday, July 21st. The winners of this year's raffle prizes are:
$100 Emilio's Tapas Restaurant Gift Certificate
Donna Siegel
Start 'em Young Children's Prize
Victoria Beck
Container Gardening Prize
Barbara Cavanaugh
Pampered Gardener Prize
Brian Suste
Grassroots Garden Group would like to thank the following event sponsors, whose generous contributions made this event possible. We are touched by the amount of support that we received from these local establishments. In alphabetical order:
Alpine Food Shop, Westchester
Chai Yo Thai, Westchester
The Davey Tree Expert Company, Glen Ellyn
Emilio's Tapas Restaurant, Hillside
Hitzeman Funeral Home, Brookfield
Julie White of @Properties, Western Springs
Lawrence's Fish & Shrimp, Westchester
Le Petite Cafe, Westchester
Mark Mieczkowski of Guaranteed Rate, Naperville
Midas, Westchester
The Original Chickies Beef, Hillside
Paul's Pizza & Hot Dogs, Westchester
Quesabroso, Hillside
We would also like to thank those that purchased tickets or made individual donations of time, money, and energy. Because of people like you, the Westchester Food Pantry is able to provide food and hope to local residents struggling with food insecurity. Every dollar donated provides the pantry with approximately $9 of buying power from the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which means that our $2,700 donation could potentially provide over $24,000 of food.
Thank you.
Please visit our Facebook page for more photos from our Inaugural Westchester Garden Walk.