KEENE— Named for one of the Adirondack Garden Club’s most outstanding members, the Ellen Lea Paine Memorial Nature Fund was established in 2005 to give financial assistance to individuals and not-for-profit organizations involved in programs whose purpose is to study, protect and enjoy the natural environment within the Adirondack Park. Mrs. Paine, who passed away in 2005, was an avid gardener who took great pride in the gardens of her family properties.

This year, the Ellen Lea Paine Memorial Nature Fund awarded eight grants ranging up to $1,500.

Awardees are as follows:

Adirondack Land Trust, to assist in the purchase of battery-powered equipment.

Au Sable Forks Elementary School, for the purchase of a collection of books by Rebecca Pettiford concerning composting, flowers, fruits, harvesting, planting and vegetables.

Creative Kitchen Garden, to expand an educational edible garden to include more perennial and native plants to better support native pollinators and wildlife and reduce water consumption.

Exploring Nature Educational Resource, partnering with Champlain Area Trails (CATS), to provide a program called “A Night Walk” to take children out after dark and teach them about nocturnal animals and natural history in local habitats.

Friends of Moody Pond, to produce an informational guide for people to notice, identify and report the diversity of species that live around Moody Pond.

Lake Placid Community Garden, to designate and plant a garden plot in the Lake Placid Community Garden as a native pollinator garden.

Little Peaks, Inc., to support the creation of a children’s garden at their new facility.

North Country School, to improve their honey bee program and get two new hives.

More information on the Adirondack Garden Club Ellen Lea Paine Memorial Nature Fund is available at adirondackgardenclub.com.

Founded in 1928, the Adirondack Garden Club’s mission is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening, to aid in the protection of native plants and birds, and to encourage civic planting, and the conservation of our natural resources.  In 1933, the club joined The Garden Club of America, a volunteer, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization comprised of 200 member clubs and approximately 18,000 club members throughout the U.S.

The Adirondack Garden Club’s purpose is the conservation of the plants, shrubs and trees native to the Adirondack region, and the making of both wild and cultivated gardens characteristic of the environment in which they are placed, the furthering of the cultivation of gardens throughout the Adirondack area, and the promotion of civic conservation and beautification. More information is available on the club’s website.

Photo at top: Mary Godnick shows the bounty of Creative Kitchen Garden. Creative Kitchen Garden received an Ellen Lea Paine Memorial Nature Fund grant to expand their educational edible garden. Photo provided by Beth Rowland.