In the Community
Anna Coit & Nita Kincaid Memorial Scholarship
This scholarship is awarded annually to a student pursuing further education in the fields of agriculture, horticulture, or related areas. More details are available on our Scholarship page.
Civic Development
The club maintains gardens and plantings at the Village Green, the Town Hall, the Clock Garden opposite, and at the Grange.
Every winter, the club purchases, and members decorate, evergreen wreaths to enhance public buildings and locations in North Stonington. You will see them at Town Hall, Wheeler Library, and many other special places in town.
Community Grants
As funding permits, the club awards grants to other non-profit organizations for community and civic improvement projects relating to gardening and conservation, as well as projects that educate the public about gardening, horticulture, and conservation.
Examples of projects that were awarded funding support in recent years:
- Ashaway Free Library (to create an educational vegetable garden on its grounds)
- Avalonia Land Conservancy (toward acquisition of Babcock Ridge Preserve, for interpretive signage at Tri-Town Preserve and funds towards restoration of oak forests at Sheets Preserve
in North Stonington). - Coogan Farm (contribution to acquisition by Denison Pequotspos Nature Center).
- Eastern Connecticut Community Gardens Association (to support their ongoing efforts to encourage community gardens)
- Friends of Chikumbuso (for seeds and supplies for their educational garden in Lukasa, Zambia)
- GOSA (towards aquisition of Avery Farm Preserve in Groton, installation of a pollinator garden and towards purchase of Center Groton Preserve in Groton).
- Moriarty Magnet School (to install a monarch waystation).
- Montessori Discovery School (to create a middle school hands-on curriculum involving growing and selling fruits and vegetables to the public).
- Mystic and Noank Library (to contract educational programs from Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center).
- New London Homeless Hospitality Center (to install raised beds for clients to raise vegetables for the Center’s meals programs)
- North Stonington’s Hewitt Farm (grants for signage, fencing, and a composting toilet).
- North Stonington Historical Society (to make additions and improvements to the historic plantings at the Stephen Main House).
- Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center (to install a community garden)
- Wheeler Library (for their building fund and to create seasonal plantings in several places around the library).
- Riverside Children’s Center (for a tree planting program)
- UConn’s Avery Point campus (toward installation of a childrens cognitive garden)
- United War Veterans Grand Army of the Republic (to install landscaping at Buckingham House historic home and museum)
- West Vine Street School (for garden journals)
Community Education
Volunteers from the club offer award-winning programs on gardening, horticulture and related topics in our local schools and in partnership with the Wheeler Library, North Stonington. The club also funds a Scholarship.
Conservation
The club actively supports conservation efforts and conservation organizations within the region.
In 2024 we made donations to Avalonia Land Conservancy, Connecticut College Arboretum, Denison-Pequotsepos Nature Center, F.R.E.S.H. New london, Hewitt farm, Stephen Main Homestead, and the Wheeler High School Activity Fund. The 2025 budget includes donations to these organizations.
In 2019, we initiated a 3-year program to establish and expand habitat for monarch butterflies within North Stonington and surrounding communities. We are an active supporter of the North Stonington’s Pollinator Pathway Project Follow us on Facebook or contact us for more information about these programs.
Memorial Day Parade
Every Memorial Day, the club decorates an antique tractor and haywagon with patriotic banners and flags, hanging baskets, planters and window boxes. We join the North Stonington Annual Memorial Day Parade riding through the village handing out seed packets, marigold and patriotic pins.
