Three Chopt Garden Club

March 21, 2022

threechoptgardenclub.com

Richmond Aids Ministry Project 1995

With AIDS becoming the leading cause of death for all Americans between ages 25 to 44, the public was afraid and people with AIDS were ostracized. Facing protests from neighbors, Richmond Aids Ministry (RAM) opened two guest houses in 1994 for patients in the latter stages of AIDS who could not otherwise afford housing. Soon after the completion of these cottages, Three Chopt Garden Club began a three-year landscaping project to beautify the two guest houses and the community in which they were located.

According to TCGC member Annabel Josephs at the time, the members of the club first and foremost felt empathy for the residents and wanted to help make their new homes beautiful places to live. They also wanted to ease neighbors’ concerns and thought that plantings could give the houses the feel of home in their eyes as well and help to integrate them into the neighborhoods. Despite the publicity surrounding the houses at the time of initial landscaping, there was never really a question of preserving the club’s anonymity. The members used their names “enthusiastically in support of RAM and the work it does.”

Three Chopt not only raised the funds for the three-year landscaping project — its members selected trees, shrubs, and flowers for both guest houses, unloaded the delivery trucks in bitter cold rain, planted, mulched, and watered. They brought hoses from home to water the plantings throughout the spring and summer. Three Chopt’s enthusiasm was contagious. Annabel’s husband John made window boxes for both guest houses and built a birdhouse for the back garden. Members planted the boxes with flowers to bring the beauty of nature into the residents’ rooms. RAM staff and guest house residents helped maintain the plantings.

Extreme Stream Makeover 2007

The four Richmond GCV clubs joined forces in 2007 with the James River Association (JRA) on a project called Extreme Stream Makeover. JRA identified a stream off Horsepen Road in dire need of clean up and bank restoration. On assigned days, the JRA staff and a large group of members from all four clubs turned out to work, hauling trash out of the stream bed, clearing the banks of invasives and filling the banks with new plantings for stabilization. Extreme Stream Makeover was the first joint project involving the four Richmond clubs and the impact was even greater than expected. Lasting friendships developed among the four clubs and members were anxious to take on another project together.

Capital Trees 2009

GCV Annual Meeting 2010

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The meeting, A Passion to Preserve, A Vision to Create, was co-chaired by Lila Putney and Susan Hamill. TGCG members Francine Brown, Carol Price and Alice Siegel opened their gardens for tours prior to the meeting on Wednesday, followed by lunch at Alice’s beautiful home. Cocktails and the awards banquet were held at the newly renovated Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Gorgeous flower arrangements from the banquet were donated to the Virginia Home and Westminster-Canterbury. The first annual Bessie Bocock Carter Conservation Award in the amount of $5000 was presented to the Boxwood Garden Club, the James River Garden Club, the Tuckahoe Garden Club of Westhampton, and Three Chopt Garden Club for their joint project, Capital Trees.  Read Journal article.

Virginia Treatment Center for Children

Three Chopt Garden Club began a project in 2020 to upgrade an inpatient arts and crafts garden at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children (VTCC) — a project that exemplified key points of the club’s mission to support education through gardening and beautification of community spaces through charitable endeavors. Learn more about VTCC.

The project included installation and ongoing maintenance of plants and flowers — planting, weeding, and watering, with plans to continue enhancements and maintenance, and to create a horticultural therapy program.

TCGC Presidents 1995-2021

1995-1997	Alice Goodwin
1997-1999	Peggy Talman
1999-2001	Carol Price
2001-2003	Linda Crawford
2003-2005	Judy Brown
2005-2007	Alice Siegel
2007-2009	Lou Johnson
2009-2011	Jeanette McKittrick
2011-2013	Jeanette McKittrick
2013-2015	Ashley Wallace
2015-2017	Bootsie Rogers
2017-2019	Allison Fauls
2019-2021	Veronika Walmsley