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APRIL 2017 • DANVILLE TODAY NEWS • PAGE 1
APRIL 2017
RUTH BANCROFT GARDEN VISITOR AND EDUCATION CENTER COMING SOON
By Jody Morgan
The Ruth Bancroft Garden (RBG), the horticultural treasure that inspired the creation of the Garden Conservancy, celebrates breaking ground for a long-awaited Visitor and Education Center on May 20th. While translating decades of dreaming into practical plans, the RBG has raised more than two-thirds of the estimated $2.9 million required to complete construction. Gathering spaces within the building will benefit the entire community. Exterior features will extend options for welcoming visitors, volunteers, and private events to one of America’s premiere public gardens. Amenities within the new facility include a multi-purpose Great Room, seating 85-100 for workshops, seminars, corporate retreats and social events with a built-in sound system for presentations. The utility kitchen originally envisioned is being upgraded to meet commercial prep specifications. The reception area provides space for garden-related merchandise and historical displays. Restrooms will allow visitor access from both inside and outside the building. The 1,000 square feet of office space is augmented by 1,700 square feet of loft area storage. Bistro tables on the patio outside the center invite taking time to savor the scenery. A lighted pavilion near the garden entrance promises to be the ideal location for staging large events, enhancing the plant sale experience and bringing groups together. The tile mosaic welcome wall bordering the pavilion and nursery will bear permanent testimony to the many supporters whose contributions are making the visions of artists, architects, and admirers of Ruth Bancroft’s achievements a reality.
LEND A HAND DAY
By Linda Summers Pirkle
“I felt badly, but I did say ‘I told you so!’” shared Gretchen Trinta. She recounted a memory of her husband’s hedge cutting incident. “It was too far for him to reach,” she recalled, and her husband of 45 years fell. “It was frightening and at the same time comical to see him on the ground with his legs sprawled out. Once I found out he was OK, I shared my thoughts on the error of his ways.” And Gretchen added, “He has never tried to cut that hedge since!”
Luckily for Gretchen and Larry Trinta and other Danville seniors, Lend a Hand Day is once again approaching. For 14 years the Town of Danville has been facilitating a spring garden clean-up day that brings out over 100 enthusiastic volunteers who are matched with
See LEND A HAND continued on page 16
LINDSAY WILDLIFE EXPERIENCE
By Fran Miller
Artist’s renderings by Robert Buckeroo IDF Global bring to life the plans for the RBG Visitor and Education Center. (Courtesy of the RBG).
In August 2016, Donna Billick of Davis, CA and her apprentice Amanda Larsen assisted by 17 clay artists associated with the Center for Community Arts in Walnut Creek, led over 200 volunteers of all ages from the Bay Area in a two-day workshop to create and paint tiles for the west side of the donor wall. Participants used over 700 pounds of clay. The east side of the wall will showcase tiles imprinted with donor names. Adding your name is still possible. Succulents were considered suitable only for containers by most Northern California gardeners when Ruth began planting them in-ground in 1972. Although an
See BANCROFT continued on page 20 Local Postal Customer
PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Permit 263 Alamo CA
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“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin might have been referring to the philosophy of the Lindsay Wildlife Experience when he turned this wise phrase more than 200 years ago. The Lindsay Wildlife Experience (formerly the Lindsay Wildlife Museum) and its Wildlife Rehabilitation Hospital have always been more than the dictionary definition of its former ‘museum’ name implied – a building in which objects of interest are stored or exhibited. Lindsay’s live animals, its vibrant, hands-on displays and programs, and its real hospital care presentations are so much more than museum material, and thus, the Museum last year revealed its new, more apropos name. Officially founded in 1955 by Alexander Lindsay, a local businessman who had studied ornithology and taught neighborhood children about nature, the Lindsay has
See LINDSAY cont. on page 28
Volume VIII - Number 6 3000F Danville Blvd. #117, Alamo, CA 94507 (925) 405-6397 Fax (925) 406-0547 Alisa Corstorphine ~ Publisher editor@ yourmonthlypaper.com The opinions expressed herein belong to the writers, and do not necessarily reflect that of Danville Today News. Danville Today News is not responsible for the content of any of the advertising herein, nor does publication imply endorsement.