The Seaside Garden Club’s annual auction was a huge success this year!  A nice crowd filled the Manchester Community Center on Tuesday, May 9th for a chance to bid on the many items. A plant sale was added this year and preceded the auction.

Many wonderful donations contributed to the success of the auction.  Local businesses, including Ryan & Wood Distilleries, Brick End Farms, Sea Meadow Gifts, Neptune’s Harvest and Talbot’s donated generously to the auction.  Among the items generating heavy bidding was mulch donated by Pallazola Brothers Landscaping, hand crafted Garden Art pieces and beautiful hanging baskets from Marshall’s Farm Stand, Wolf Hill and Marini Farms.

Many other businesses donated beautiful plant material, including HerbFARMacy, Gordon’s Florist, Asbury Gardens, and Chapman’s Greenhouse/Juel Gifts.  The donated plant material complemented the many large healthy perennials from our members’ gardens.

The crowd will be dining out this summer on the gift certificates donated by local restaurants including: Seven Central, Windward Grill, Evviva Cucina, Serenitee Group, Ithaki Restaurant, Fortune Palace, Not your Average Joe’s and Shea’s.  The board members supplied light refreshments to nourish the hungry bidders.

The club members worked very hard planning and organizing this event.  Many created their own special garden art and used their garden know-how to put together lovey flowering baskets. A beautiful bistro set donated by a member help set the stage for the plant material. Susan Kelley of the Generous Gardeners organization stopped by to talk about her groups’ work on the newly opened Stacy Boulevard and to contribute Garden Tour tickets, tulips and other plant material.

This auction is the Seaside Garden Club’s only fund raiser for the year.  100% of the proceeds go the support the club’s community service projects and programs for the upcoming year. Among the club’s community service activities are delivering flowers to shut-ins, planting and maintaining window boxes at Beverly Bootstraps and the Manchester Community Center.  The club’s newest project is taking shape at the lower level of the Manchester Town Hall.

The Seaside Garden Club is very appreciative of all the business and member donations.  The board members are already hard at work planning terrific programs for next season.  The club is made up of members from all over the North Shore and we welcome new members.  They meet the second Tuesday of the month (September through June) at the Manchester Community Center. See our blog: https://seasidegardenclub.wordpress.com/about/ or visit our Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/SeasideGardenClub

Photo are board members assembling before the auction: Noeline Kohr, Beth Coz, Lenore Kepler, Maureen Terrill, Janet Groth, Kathy Ryan, Debbie DiGiovanni, Elaine Persons, Dot Sieradzki, Kate Willwerth, Sari Oseasohn, Lisa Willwerth, Deborah Willwerth, Peggy Finn and Lucia Darr.

Want to turn your food and garden scraps into some coveted “black gold” this summer? Then come learn how to start your own backyard composting system from the experts at Black Earth Compost! Both the urban and suburban gardener will learn easy, low-stress ways to turn your scraps into a useful organic soil amendment!

Tickets here!

SeniorCare Inc. will hold a fundraiser at Jalapenos Authentic Mexican Restaurant, located at 86 Main Street in downtown Gloucester, on Wednesday, May 24, 2017, from 4:30 p.m. to closing. Jalapenos will donate a portion of all orders placed—both dine-in and take-out. Reservations are recommended. Call 978-281-3680. Please let them know that you are participating in SeniorCare’s Dine Out Fundraiser.

For more information on SeniorCare Inc., go to www.seniorcareinc.org or call 978-281-1750. Jalapenos Restaurant’s menu can be found at www.jalapenosgloucester.com.

About SeniorCare
SeniorCare Inc. serves an area that represents more than 27,000 residents aged 60 and over. We provide services to adults with disabilities and elders in nine communities. Established in 1972, SeniorCare has approximately 100 employees and nearly 400 volunteers. The volunteers and staff work to fulfill its mission as a consumer-centered organization which provides and coordinates services to elders and others. This allows them to live independently at home or in a setting of their choice, while remaining part of their community.

Please join us for a breakfast buffet at the Gloucester House and hear the latest from your hometown Community Action Agency, Action Inc.! Proudly serving Cape Ann since 1965.

Every two months, Juni Van Dyke, Director of the Rose Baker Art Program selects two artists from the program to have their works exhibited in the lobby of the Rose Baker Senior Center. For the spring 2017 exhibit, Juni selected two artists with very different styles: Judy Magee and Barbara Jobe.

Juni Van Dyke (c) with Judy Magee (l), and Barbara Jobe, the 2017 Spring Artists of the Month.

Judy Magee cannot remember a time when she was not painting or drawing. As a child she began drawing as a way to pass the time and the interest has only grown over the years.

Although she never had formal art training, one of her aunts had a deep appreciation for art and inspired Judy to believe in her talent and pursue her own accomplished versatility and style. In the spring exhibit, you will see the wide rage of subjects that Judy has captured on canvas and the variety of techniques she has mastered.

Barbara Jobe says she has always been a crafts person, creating pieces of art with tile and fabric. Painting is a new undertaking for Barbara as she has only been painting for a few years. She credits her advancement in painting to the encouragement, help and advice that Juni and the other participants in the art group have provided.

Barbara’s paintings are a window into her range of creativity. Whether she is solving a problem by fabricating creative boxes, or creating scenes in clay, watercolor or acrylic, her work is a colorful and interesting expression of self. In the exhibit, you will see a progression of her work and be amazed at how accomplished this new artist is.

The works of Judy and Barbara will be on display on display from now until the end of June in the main lobby of the Rose Baker Senior Center at 6 Manuel F. Lewis Street in Gloucester. The show can be viewed weekdays from 9am to 4pm.

Want to turn your food and garden scraps into some coveted “black gold” this summer? Then come learn how to start your own backyard composting system from the experts at Black Earth Compost! Both the urban and suburban gardener will learn easy, low-stress ways to turn your scraps into a useful organic soil amendment!

Tickets here!