Community Corner

20th Year of Scholarships at Western Springs Garden Club

The 86-year-old club, the Village's oldest civic organization, is once again accepting applications for their annual scholarship gifts.

A career in plants should be in part funded by plants, right?

That’s been the aim of the Western Springs Garden Club’s scholarship program since 1993, when it launched as a program for helping send high school students to summer workshops in various environmental fields. Each year since then, the Club has been sponsoring Lyons Township-area youths’ forays into becoming custodians of the planet; in 2001, it switched over to giving scholarships to college-bound kids.

“One of the principles of our garden club is to promote the beautification and the protection of wildlife for future generations,” said Garden Club second vice president (or “guild”) Beth Clemen.

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“We feel that one of the significant ways of doing this is to educate the youth of today to work towards environmental awareness and environmental protection for tomorrow.”

The Garden Club is Western Springs’ oldest civic association, turning 86 this year. In it, the Club’s 20th of awarding a gift, they are offering up two $1,000 scholarships to any student in the Lyons Township area entering college (or already in college,) studying in any field towards improving and/or sustaining the environment.

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For instance, last year’s recipients were a student going into mechanical engineering for the purpose of studying renewable energy, along with a second-time recipient studying crop sciences.

The scholarships are almost completely funded by the Garden Club’s plant sale, held annually on the Saturday of Mother’s Day Weekend. This year, the Club has also begun selling blank note cards/greeting carts at Uptown Shop and Clever Girl to raise additional funds. (The cards feature photography by Colin Haase, husband of Garden Club member Jerri.)

Applications are now open to anyone from the District 204 area and are due on March 5. The application forms can be found on the Garden Club's official website.


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