COME TO THE ANNUAL CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL
SECRET GARDENS TOUR
Links related to the 2008 Tour
ABOUT THE TOUR
The Children’s Festival Secret Gardens Tour is scheduled for Saturday, July 12th, 2008, from 10:00 to 4:00. The purpose of the tour is to raise funds for the London International Children’s Festival Child Fund which provides subsidized tickets for performances and workshops to children, families and community service groups, enabling all children to fully experience the Festival.
The Secret Gardens Tour is a unique tour of gardens at the peak of the Ontario summer garden season. It is designed to be child and family friendly, with eleven private gardens being “home made” gardens, untouched by professional landscapers. At each private garden, there will be volunteers who will supervise plant and garden activities for children, while adults consult with the gardeners.
At many of the homes, garden art and books will be raffled. You will find personalized garden rocks, butterfly houses, and various other accents for the garden. At two of these home gardens, there will be a display of Victorian garden faerie chairs made by generous gardeners, magical additions to any garden, which will be raffled off at the end of the day. These include some “celebrity” chairs made by key members of the London community.
Joni Baechler, City Council
Susan Eagle, City Council
Judy Bryant, City Council
Nancy Branscombe, City Council
Gina Barber, Board of Control
Bill Tucker, Director Thames Valley District School Board
Susanna Hubbard Krimmer, CEO London Public Library
Kathie Tait Rayner, Manager, London YMCA Child Care Services
Julia O’Sullivan, Dean of the Faculty of Education, UWO
Tammy Adkin, Director London Regional Children’s Museum
Nancy Long, Red Hat Society and Scholar’s Choice
Rosy Pellarin and Class, London Catholic School Board
Susan Ferley, Grand Theatre
Alison Ogilvie, the longest serving volunteer at the Festival?
Jan Greene, Godmother of all the Godparents for the Secret Garden Tour
There will also be two not-so-secret gardens: Eldon House and Museum London are opening their gardens to us this year. At Museum London, Ron Benner who sculptures appear in gardens around the world will launch his new book.
In addition, there will be a list of the unique tree sculptures by Robbin Wenzoski, an artistic celebration of the “forest city”, created from some of our older trees which are normally clear cut at the end of their lives.
Passports for the Secret Gardens Tour may be purchased at the Children’s Festival box office and at garden centres around London. For a complete list of vendors, check the Children’s Festival website http://www.londonchildfest.com/ or email secretgardenstour@rogers.com. Individual passports are $10.00 and children are free. Passports may also be purchased by cash, cheque or credit card on the day of the tour at any of the gardens on the Tour.
If you would like to volunteer as a gatekeeper on the day of the tour, we would welcome your help for the full day (10 to 4) or for half day shifts (10-1 and 1-4)
Thank you for your support.
Committee Members:
Betsy Reilly, Coordinator Susan Webb
Alison Ogilvie Jan Greene
Susan Booth Susan Allan
Marcia Schram
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2007 Garden Tour...
A
Special Thank you to Volunteers and Public who supported the
Secret Gardens Tour...
The Childrens
Festival Secret Gardens Tour Committee would like to thank all
of the remarkable gardeners who showed their gardens on July
14th. It was a tough, dry year to keep the gardens going but
the beauty of their gardens was appreciated by all of the visitors.
We would also like to thank the many volunteers who made this
FIRST tour such a success - designing the beautiful poster which
advertised the Tour, selling tickets in your stores, working
at the Childrens Festival to promote the Tour, making faerie
chairs for raffle, donating raffle items, carting cases of water
bottles, picking up and delivering balloons, troubleshooting
and photographing on the day of the Tour, spending part or all
of the Tour day volunteering as a gatekeeper or as a children's
activity supervisor. It was particularly important to have such
strong volunteers supervising the Childrens activities, the most
unique feature of the Tour. We also thank the individuals and
groups like the Red Hat Society who made and donated Victorian
Faerie chairs for raffle.
While The
Secret Gardens Tour was a first year tour and the rain came around
1:30, we still had a very successful day. We raised enough funds
for the Festivals Child Fund to subsidize approximately 400 children
to attend performances at the 2008 Children's Festival. In addition
to the funds raised, visitors and volunteers shared a great deal
of pleasure and knowledge about gardening, while the kids had
a ball doing garden crafts.
Thank you
once again for your generosity and we hope to see you all back
again for next years SECOND ANNUAL Childrens Festival Secret
Gardens Tour on July 12, 2008.
With
warmest appreciation,
Betsy
Reilly, Susan Webb, Jan Greene & Alison Ogilvie
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In support of the
Children’s Festival’s CHILD FUND
Our CHILD FUND provides subsidized tickets for performances and
workshops to children, families and community services groups.
It enables all children to fully experience the joy and wonderment
of the London International Children’s Festival.
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