Networking leads to generosity for Garden Club
<p>JEROME A. POLLOS/Press The Coeur d'Alene Garden Club presented nine local non-profit organizations Tuesday with funds totaling $10,000 which was raised through the club's annual garden tour. Photographed from left are, Vern Harvey, with Hayden Meadows Elementary, Bonnie Warwick, the garden tour coordinator, Sandra Gunn, with CASA, Janie Givas, with Children's Village, Joe Robinson, with North Idaho Violence and Prevention Center, Katie Simmons, with ICARE, Kim Normand, with Shared Harvest Community Garden, Theresa Staples, with North Idaho Violence and Prevention Center, John Corcora…
COEUR d'ALENE - Donations are only part of what nonprofits need to thrive, said Bonnie Warwick on Tuesday.
Networking is just as crucial, the Garden Tour chair with the Coeur d'Alene Garden Club said.
"We all need each other. Our causes need each other," Warwick said, speaking to representatives of 10 local nonprofits on the North Idaho College campus.
Her advice still accompanied donations - $10,000 worth raised by this year's Garden Tour.
She encouraged each of the nonprofits to use the funds while still tackling the networking part, too.
"I hope you each recognize each other as helping in the community," Warwick said before distributing the checks.
Groups receiving aid from the Garden Club included: the North Idaho College Foundation, the Hayden Meadows Elementary greenhouse project, Children's Village, Shared Harvest, ICARE, Elderhelp, the Kootenai Humane Society and the North Idaho Violence Prevention Center.
"It is so gratifying," Warwick said of supporting the area organizations.
Katie Simmons, ICARE director, said the Garden Club's $1,000 donation is a great help.
The agency has had difficulty raising donations in its mission to prevent child abuse, she said.
"We can provide a lot of home visits from that money," Simmons said, explaining that staff visits families to educate them on proper child care.
The nonprofit especially wants to visit more families with older children, she added.
"A lot of families, once the kids hit school age, there's a routine issue. They don't know how to set up homework time, or dinner time or reading time," Simmons said. "Parenting is a learned skill."
NIVPC, formerly the Women's Center, has myriad programs the Garden Club's $1,000 donation can boost, said Executive Director Joe Robinson.
The nonprofit shelters about 16 women a month, he said, on top of providing crisis intervention, counseling, services for sexual assault and domestic violence, plus teen education on domestic violence.
The nonprofit's court program director Theresa Staples said she averages more than 100 contacts per month.
"We're really busy," she said. "(Idaho) is third in the nation for domestic violence."
Donations like Tuesday's can mean providing a woman in need with extra cash to relocate, Robinson said.
"What the need is tomorrow, there's no predicting," he said.
The $500 to Shared Harvest Community Garden will support the group's basic operations, said Founder and President Kim Normand.
The garden has provided 29,000 pounds of food to assistance facilities over the past four years, Normand said.
"I tell people we're not a community garden just to grow produce. We're a garden to grow a community," she said. "We grow relationships, so in helping one person, it's a ripple effect."