Skip to main content

Valley Garden Club plants foundation for student success

2017-09-05
Members of the Valley Garden Club from Cashiers.
The Valley Garden Club from Cashiers has set up a laboratory and textbook fund for Cashiers area Southwestern Community College students. Pictured are Valley Garden Club members front row, left to right: Sheryle Neal, Jeanne Smith, Nelly Rice, Diane deMoye, Barbara Gerhardt, Harriette Floyd, Kathy Bethea, Vanna Cameron - seated (founding president), Mary Jane Bills, Kay Allen, Christie Wardowski, Kathie Kirts, Maggi Reimann, Jane Galpin and Sheila Peavey. Back row, left to right: Pam Trissel, Carey Joyner, Mary Wingfield, Joyce Brumbaugh, Gabby Gillies, Marie Waid, Linda Burton, Judy Zachary, Carolyn Santee, Glenda Cadarette, Barbara Kups, Mary Loesch, Mary Kay Habgood, Anne Byrd and David Wansley.

While driving through Cashiers, the beautiful flowers and plants around town will certainly catch your eye. The members of the Valley Garden Club plant and maintain the garden beds located at the Post Office, Library and The Point.

The club’s main purpose is beautification of the area, but one of their main projects is holding raffles as well as plant and bake sales to raise funds for Southwestern Community College’s New Century Scholars at Blue Ridge School and Summit Charter School.

“We do this for the kids,” said Donna Lehn, Valley Garden Club president. “It is all about helping them succeed.”

The members of the club have been generously donating to SCC since 1995, and have continued that generosity with a fund that covers $250 worth of textbooks and laboratory fees each semester specifically for Jackson County New Century Scholars from the Cashiers Valley area enrolled at SCC.

"We are so grateful to the Valley Garden Club for their spirit of giving and generosity in supporting SCC students from Blue Ridge School and Summit Charter School as they seek to build a better future for themselves and their families,” said Brett Woods, SCC Foundation director.

Founded in 1987 as a non-profit, working club, the group promotes beautification, conservation of native plants, flowers and natural resources in Cashiers, while furthering knowledge of good gardening practices.

To learn more about ways you can support SCC students, contact Woods at 828.339.4241 or b_woods@southwesterncc.edu.

For help with the accessibility of this website, please use this form.