Coeur d'Alene Garden Club donates over $30K to support local green thumb programs

A little support for the garden means a big boost in health and happiness for long- and short-term residents at Life Care Center of Post Falls.

They plant flowers, tend to raised beds and otherwise appreciate spending time in the tranquility of nature while convalescing and rehabilitating.

"The residents we have that utilize our courtyards, I see it as a part of their healing," Life Care Center of Post Falls Executive Director Ben Palumbo said Tuesday. "I hear them go out to the courtyards and say how beautiful and just how peaceful it is, and that helps them along their journey."

The skilled nursing and rehab center was one of 13 recipients to be awarded a portion of more than $30,000 in grants by the Coeur d'Alene Garden Club, which distributed the funds at the beginning of its October meeting in the Community Room of the Coeur d'Alene Public Library.

This was the first year Life Care Center of Post Falls received a grant from the club.

"It was amazing to have the support and to be able to even put in for a grant or to be a recipient," Palumbo said.

Funds are annually generated through the Coeur d'Alene Garden Club's Garden Tour. The 2025 event, held June 29, marked the tour's 27th year of inviting gardening enthusiasts and community members to visit colorful, creative yards and gardens large and small throughout Kootenai County.

The 2025 amount is more than double the $13,600 collected in 2024.

"Our Garden Tour is all about giving back to the community," 2025 Tour Chair Judy Feldner said.

Many sponsors helped support this year's event, as well as vendors, artisans, volunteers and coordinators.

"We also, with our proceeds, want to thank all these people standing up here, how much they give back to the community," she said, gesturing to the small crowd gathered at the front of the room.

She said the goal with the funds raised from the annual Garden Tour "is to help organizations and schools to enhance their gardening initiatives, expand their horticultural education, extend or create new garden areas and give back to the community with the food or plants they grow."

Those who submitted grants this year were awarded the full amounts requested on their grant applications, Feldner said.

Other Garden Tour 2025 grant recipients: Developing Mind Academy, Fernan STEM Academy, Hayden Meadows Greenhouse Project, Lakes Middle School PTSA, Lutheran Church of the Master Community Garden, Shared Harvest Community Garden, Skyway Elementary School, Turkeys & More, WingsRising Inc., the North Idaho College Garden Club Scholarship Endowment, Coeur d'Alene Garden Club's Project Committee and the Garden Club's endowment to assist in a future botanical garden in the Coeur d'Alene area.

Info: cdagardenclub.com

    Coeur d'Alene Garden Club President Rhoda King shakes hands Tuesday with Life Care Center of Post Falls Executive Director Ben Palumbo as she presents him with a check for a portion of the more than $30,000 raised during the 2025 Garden Tour.
  

    Coeur d'Alene Garden Club Community Projects Committee Co-Chair Cheryl Christensen, right, visits with Garden Tour guests June 29. This year's tour brought in more than $30,000 that was given back to the community through grants during a presentation Tuesday.