New Bedford Garden Club 6-21-2026

The New Bedford Garden Club celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. What is the Garden Club? What does it do? Pauline Santos is president of the New Bedford Garden Club. Remember Pauline, she's also the president of the Dartmouth Cultural Center. Hopefully she can answer some of those questions. Welcome Pauline once again. Thank you, glad to be here. So how long have you been a member of the Garden Club? About 12 years. I was president before COVID or during COVID, which was not a normal, you know, scenario, right? And so I was elected president this year. I'll be there next year. Two years. All right. Celebrating 100 years is a massive milestone. 100 years, just about anything is a massive milestone. When you look back at the club's founding in 1926, what do you think the original members would be most proud of today? I think many would say, well, it still exists. That's a good thing. What do you think? I don't know. The Garden Club in the past did a lot of community beautification. Our members right now are at a point where just about all we can do is our own containers or yards. So it's not the same. But we do some beautification. They just did Buttonwood Park Zoo in front of the greenhouse. They did those circles. We're going to keep those up for them. So we do a few community beautifications. But you have a lot fewer members too, I mean. Well, we have a lot fewer. If I can go back to- Sure, let's start. Even before the Garden Club, it was an agricultural club of farmers in the whole New Bedford area. And they had 500 members, and they would have competition. They would meet, and they would have plants in glass bottles, and they would compete as who had the best this, that, and whatever. And the women thought that was just ugly. And that's eventually how it changed into a Garden Club. Go ahead, I'm sorry. No, that's okay. So even now, when we have our September meeting, when we get started up, we still follow that tradition. We have vases, and everybody brings, you know, we list what we want, a dahlia, a hosta leaf, a perennial or an annual, so that we have competition too. Every organization has some defining moments. Are there particular landmark projects or historic community gardens in New Bedford that best symbolize the club's work? Well, I did go to UMass Dartmouth in the archives. All our records, going all the way back, are there, so that you can research what everybody did. But we did a lot of things. I'm trying to remember, we did, not we, but they did things for St. Luke's Hospital in that area. Lots of things done at Buttonwood Park. I'm not sure. There's a lot more. One of the things we want to talk about today is membership. As you mentioned, you had over 100 members at one time, but COVID really took a bite out of the membership, sorry to say. Yes, yes. And we're always hoping for more members, you know. What's the roster now, about 40? It's about 45. 45 members. Okay. Is it a chore to become a member? Do you have to pay a lot of money? What's the deal? No, you go online and everything's right there. We have a website and everything's right there. You can join online and if you can't do that, you can email me and I can arrange it. And we have, I'm trying to remember, I was going to bring you a book and I forgot. We have the prices, I think it's $30. If you've been a member for a year and let's say something happens and you can't spend the time, you can become an associate and it's like $40 so that you don't have to do all the work that needs to be done. We do have some guidelines as to what a member should be doing. Well, let's talk about that. What sort of a commitment do members have? Well, they have to commit to coming to three meetings during the year. They have to help with the hospitality once during the year and they must attend a workshop sometime during the year. It's not a lot, but of course, if you want to do more, that's okay too. There's always room if you want to do more. I found an interesting thing in the history about Alan Haskell. He was Margaret Carrier, who was the president. They were giving out scholarships, but she recognized that he was a very talented young man, so they decided to give him $300 to buy equipment so he was able to buy a tractor or whatever he needed to do his work. I thought that was very interesting. Well, of course, Alan Haskell was one of the multiculturalist extraordinaire. One of a kind. And recently, not too recently, but he passed away several years ago. And they have the Haskell Garden there now. It's wonderful. How does the Garden Club... I mean, you're part of New Bedford and I'm sure you could kick off a couple of things anyway that are really special to the Garden Club that they did and contributed to New Bedford. But New Bedford has always had flowers in its history. Herman Melville wrote about New Bedford in Moby Dick, and so flowers and gardens were all part of that. Well, we used to do a lot of, you know, like the octopus corner there, we used to decorate that. There were a lot of places in New Bedford that the Garden Club did, but then they decided they themselves as a city would do those gardens, so we stopped doing those. COVID had a... Well, that had a big... Yeah, that really did. You were going to say something? I'm sorry. No. It's gone. Beyond planting flowers, and their own flowers, i.e. individual members now, so you don't do a lot of public things now. You've done the zoo. Right. Well, every... Oh, you mean landscape-wise? Yeah. Not too much. We take care of the Akushna Council on Aging, that's where we meet. So we help them with their garden. All right. So, yeah, but we meet on Wednesday mornings, on Wednesday, the first Wednesday of the month at 1 o'clock, and we meet at the Akushna Council on Aging, and we always have a program, some speaker or something that we're all interested in, and this year we closed, we didn't do January and February, and that was a good thing because we wouldn't have had any members coming. It was bad. How has the club worked to make gardening and environmental education accessible to generations of people? One of the things that we do is when we have meetings, we have... The public is invited to our meetings, it's open, so we have committees, so we have a Conservation, Reclamation, and Recycle Committee, we have an Horticultural Committee, so we have many, many different committees, and people are chairs, and with that, we raise money for scholarships, and this year we were able to give two $2,000 scholarships, two very worthy... Students who are interested in agriculture. It has to be something, yes. One of them that received the scholarship is going to be an arborist, and the other young lady was totally amazing, and she was going to Harvard for something over there. So, yeah. So you do have an event every year, where you... We have the plant sale every year in May, and that's where we make most of our money. We have a Ways and Means Committee, but we raise money between us. Do you have an event to award scholarships, or do you... We have a banquet, yes. This year it was at Century House, and we had about 34 people that went, plus the two scholarship recipients and their parents. All right. Look, obviously we are talking here, but it's pretty clear you're looking for more members. Yes. Looking for more people, younger people, get involved. People that are interested. You know, the difficulty is the meetings are during the day, so many young people work during the day, so that's a problem. We've talked about having an evening class, but you have to have someone who wants to do it, or a Saturday, but you know, most of us don't want to give up Saturday and evening, so it makes it a little difficult. We're hoping in the future that we can do some Zoom, so that we'd have a special amount of money where you would pay, and you could Zoom the meetings and the programs. So, we're trying to get into the... All right. If people want to join the Garden Club today, right now, what should they do? They should go on the website, the Greater New Bedford Garden Club, and it's very clear. They just fill it all in, and I will get there. Or they can email me. It's gnbgcresident at gmail.com. So, it's the initials, Greater New Bedford Garden Club. All right. So, folks, if you're interested in the Garden Club, they are interested in finding some new members. They really are, and this is the time for you to join. The Garden Club is celebrating its 100th anniversary. You're listening to Town Square Sunday. I'm Jim Phillips. My guest, Pauline Santos, President of the Bedford Garden Club. What's your favorite part, Pauline, of preparing for this year? I suppose you may be doing something else this year to celebrate this milestone, but what's your favorite part? Well, I love being outside. I love gardening. I mean, obviously, I can't do it as much as I used to, obviously. But I found a quote from one of the presidents. She was president in 1969, Gladys McGill, and I thought this resonated with me. Go ahead. She says, it means giving more than taking, doing without seeking recognition, and working in the interest of the present generation, as well as those who will inherit the world in the future. And so, yes, we are trying to do that. As you kick off the second century, sounds a little scary, doesn't it? You kick off the second century of the Greater New Bedford Garden Club. Is the primary goal, do you have a goal or a passion project you would like to see the group do? No, not as a whole group, no. All right. How about you as president? Me as president? Well, I try to keep people active and together. Sometimes you have to- Cajole. Yes. Push a little bit. Keep things going so everybody has fun. We do have a lot of fun. It really is. In October, we do mugs, and we arrange flowers in mugs, and we take them to the nursing homes. We choose different nursing homes. That's a good project. Yeah, we do a lot of things like that. All right. For folks who perhaps never thought getting involved with the gardening community, small but plucky gardening community, there really is a legacy here, and they can help. They can help expand the legacy. Right. The other thing is sometimes people, oh, I don't have a garden, so they don't want to join. But you have a vase with flowers, or you have a container, and you plant flowers in your container to decorate your home. That's gardening. It doesn't have to be a big garden in order to be in the Garden Club. It's what you're interested in. Well, I think there are a lot of folks who are more interested in gardening than we realize. I mean, I think some people may not want to join, but for whatever reason, time, this, that, but there are lots of people who love gardening. And we're doing more advertising. When we have a speaker that we think everybody would enjoy, we've been putting it out there so that if you just want to come to a program and listen, that's fine. We enjoy having the public come in. Well, I know that, again, a small group of members that you would like to expand. Give us one more time. How can people join the Grady New Bedford Garden Club? They can go to our website. They put in the Grady New Bedford Garden Club. You'll get there. Yeah, it's very easy. Or they can email me directly if they'd rather do that. Sometimes that's easier. Now, there is a fee. Yes. $30. I'm saying $30. I think it was $25. I believe it's $30 now. Okay, well, all things go up these times. But if you'd like to join the Garden Club, check it out. The Grady New Bedford Garden Club, it's 100 years old. And they're looking for more members and perhaps a little more juice for the second century, which is important. This is a tradition here in New Bedford. And gardens, beautiful gardens and flowers have always been a part of New Bedford's history. And the Garden Club would like to continue that in the years to come. My guest has been Pauline Santos, president of the New Bedford Garden Club. Pauline, thanks for coming in. Oh, thank you for having me. Up next, we have some summer fun events to watch for in Wareham. The tale's coming up when Town Square Sunday continues. Today on the pod, we're talking to Megan, trapeze artist and Scratchers enthusiast. So Megan, what do you like about playing Scratchers? Well, they're easy to play when I'm hanging around. Oh, okay. Like when you're relaxing? No, like when I'm hanging on the trapeze. I swing upside down, then do a quadruple somersault, all while playing Scratchers. Watch this. Ta-da! Unbelievable. I know, right? Scratchers from the California Lottery. A little play can make your day. Please play responsibly. Must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim.