Clermont Garden Club members read books at Head Start

by Clermont Garden Club

Throughout the year, the Clermont Garden Club purchases flower and gardening books for the children of Head Start in Clermont. Head Start is a free program for children from low-income families that provides child care and comprehensive early learning at the facility on E. Desoto St. in Clermont. Garden Club members come during the school day to interact with children in various classrooms and read the books to them. The books are then donated to Head Start.

The garden club also worked with the children of Head Start to plant vegetables in raised beds (installed by the Clermont Garden Club with the help of a grant from the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs, FFGC). With the help of the local Boy Scout Troop #551, four wooden raised beds were built. The families of the children of Head Start can enjoy the abundance of fresh vegetables from the raised beds.

The coming year, 2024-2025, will be packed with many club activities, including field trips (to gardens and greenhouses, for example), horticultural programs, and “Fun-With-Flowers” ​​sessions where participants create floral arrangements or kokedamas (for example) to take home. A garden walk is also planned for October 2024, where club members and the public will tour beautiful private residential gardens in and around Clermont. The Clermont Garden Club warmly welcomes new members and guests to club meetings, which begin again in fall 2024.