Coastal Gardeners Projects
OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHEER (OCC)
Sandy Daniels, Chair; Lili Oller and Tina Slatkowski Co-Chairs
OCC creates large holiday gift bags (this year reduced to 120 from 160 bags) for the Roxanna CHEER Center. Their clients, who are a part of the Meals on Wheels program, receive these gift bags with their holiday meal delivery. Sussex County CHEER Center’s clients receive any gift bags not used by the Roxanna Center on Christmas morning. CG fundraises, through Ways and Means, for the items purchased for the bags and may also receive donations. There is an assembly day at the clubhouse to put the items in the bags and then they are delivered to Roxanna CHEER
Center by our members. Thank you notes/letters of appreciation are done by the volunteers. Such a fun day for all!!
BEACH AND BAY COTTAGE TOUR
Jenn Martin, Chair; Chris Coppa, Co-Chair
Coastal Gardeners volunteered as docents for this annual fund raising event. 100% of the Tour's net proceeds directly benefit the South Coastal Library in Bethany Beach.
The Cottage Tour was very successful, raising more money than last
year $106,500 with 1,381 total tickets sold. (1151 combo and 230
virtual). We had a very large house this year and thanks to our great club we were able to staff most of the 21 positions that were needed.
Thanks to Lynne White who supplied names of some additional
volunteers that we used to fill the remaining positions. We have new
Garden club members from this event! We were challenged this year with the house being on a Bus route, due to limited parking, which our visitors had to take the Beach & Bay bus vs driving and parking. So we had more ebb and flow with the visitors.
COMMUNITY GARDENING AND BEAUTIFULICATION
Dagsboro Town Hall
Bev Boies Chair, Jackie Dietrich Co-Chair
Keep the garden in front of Town Hall neat and clean and planted with perennials and native plants. Planters will have seasonal plants all year long. Some larger projects may be planned for removal of bamboo that is toxic to birds. Usually 2-3 volunteers are needed for weeding and watering, but additional help may be needed for the larger
project.
Beebe South Coastal Planters
Jenn Martin Chair, Cathy Veale Co-Chair
Project involves year round maintenance, including watering of large garden containers at the entrances of the Beebe South Coastal Emergence Dept. Responsibilities include procurement and planting of seasonal plants, maintaining, weeding and watering the
containers. Members are responsible for developing a watering schedule for the containers from early April until October. Membership is encouraged to sign up online for watering slots.
ADOPT-A-HIGHWAY
Jackie Dietrich, Chair; Joyce Kelly Uy Co-Chair
Clean up roads assigned to us by DELDOT, currently Piney Neck area around Delaware Botanic Gardens. Project is 3 times per year. DELDOT is contacted after each collection for bag pickup. Usually 2-3 hours (9:00am - 12:00pm) depending on amount of debris. Cochair will periodically pick up gloves and trash bags from DELDOT as needed for volunteer use. Vests and pickers are provided.
PHILIP SHOWELL BACKPACKS FOR KIDS
Cherie Farkosh, Chair; Mary Alice McNamara, Robyn Zagone,
Tina Slatowski Co-Chairs
Project is about purchasing required school supplies for a local elementary school. Open to any members who choose to volunteer to help. Responsibilities include working with school administration to develop shopping lists and distributing the information to CG members via an email citing the collection location and items requested. Ask members to leave names of donors for a followup “thank you”.
HEALTHY FOODS FOR HEALTHY KIDS
Mary Kunst Chair; Darlene Boerlage, Co-Chair
This program is a curriculum based hands-on vegetable gardening program which involves all students at Phillip C. Showell Elementary School in Selbyville. Coastal Gardeners provided the funds ($5,000 to paid in full September, 2025) for the project and works in conjunction with the Garden Coordinator (a teacher at the school) and the school principal to plan for the growing seasons in the Spring and Fall. The Coastal Gardener’s primary responsibility is opening and closing the garden for the Spring and Fall plantings. This is a requirement on our part. In addition to opening and closing the garden, we may be asked to participate in other ways such as reading aloud books on gardening to students, setting up a booth at the Spring PTO Fair, helping students plant seeds and harvesting the vegetables when they are ready.
BEACH GRASS PLANTING
Janet Green and Mary Alice McNamara, Co-Chairs
A one time of year project, usually near St. Patrick’s Day. Volunteers needed to plant grass provided by the State to help protect the dunes. Planting is done in teams, one person making the hole, the other planting the plug.
BIDEN ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER
Terry Czerwinski, Chair: Deb Kleiner, Mary Kunst, Janet Green,
Tina Siatkowski, Susan Jordan, Co-Chairs
The Biden Environmental Center is a collaborative project with the six Sussex DFGCs and DNREC. Coastal Gardeners will be assisting with the design, planning, purchasing, planting and maintenance of the container gardens and full landscaping for the Biden Center.