Meet The Former and Current Riverhead Garden Club Presidents

The Riverhead Garden Club was founded by its first twelve members in 1931, and incorporated in 1933.  Relatives of some of the founding members continue the family tradition today with their membership in the club.

On Wednesday morning, the Garden Club held a luncheon at Vineyard Caterers to raise money for the non-profit club.

The Riverhead Garden Club's original mission statement written by the founding members reads: "The object and purpose of the Riverhead garden club shall be to foster and integrate the activities of those interested in gardens and plants to promote the study of horticulture like co-operative gardening, especially among young people. And to aide in the practice of conservation of wildlife both plant and animal, and to promote civic beautification."

The Riverhead Patch sat down with current President of The Riverhead Garden Club Regina Rouge, and former past President and current member Nancy Binger to find out what being a member of The Riverhead Garden Club is really all about.

How many current members are in The Riverhead Garden Club?

Regina: We have about 70 right now, and this is actually a low. We had 97 members for a while.

Nancy: Our members range from Mattituck to Rocky Point, and East Quogue. We have been fortunate in Riverhead - there is a lot of senior housing that has come up in the last 20 years so because of the influx of retired people who have come out, our membership has benefited.

There is a nice mix of people in the club some are designers, and some live in condos and want to garden regularly so we balance out.

How do you decide what projects to do, are you approached or do you seek them out?

Nancy: Sometimes we think of them, sometimes community members seek us out, they sought us out for the hospital-we have a community garden up there.

What are some of the club's current projects?

Regina: We have members working with the students and Girl Scouts on the Star Garden. Right now we meet at the and we do plantings there. We also do different things  at , wreaths at Christmas and at the library we donate wreaths and roping for decorating. 

We also go up to the hospital and do floral therapy there, so every month they make a center piece for their cafeteria- it brightens up their day or holiday.

Nancy: We give out scholarships every year to deserving students in different districts that are represented by our membership, for college help. If they are getting into horticulture or agriculture we usually give out two $500 scholarships a year.

I heard that The Garden Club is about to celebrate an anniversary?

Regina: Yes it’s the club’s 80th anniversary next week. We are having an luncheon on Wednesday the 27th and all different Garden Clubs on Long Island were invited and coming to join us and celebrate. We have a speaker coming to teach also.

We have a speaker coming to all of our meetings. You always want to walk away learning something, so that is our goal. And whatever the speaker teaches we can go home and do and practice and then bring into the community.

The luncheon is one of our fundraisers. We are a non profit, so then we can do more for the community and get plants and mulch and things. We also do a plant sale - May 14th we are doing it at the Riverhead Library, and we help at the hospital plant sale.

It's nice to be part of the community and bring back going back to basics with things.

What do you think about the ?

Nancy: We are just hearing about it actually, we haven’t heard about it. I hope they get a great turnout. It sounds wonderful. Its an interesting concept.

Regina: I think its great. I think once you get the community involved and kids and its teaching and we were just discussing that Long Island is trying to get people to buy local. Health reasons, knowing where your produce comes from.

If someone is interested in joining The Riverhead Garden Club how does membership work?

Regina: We are accepting new members and what happens is you would go to two meetings and then fill out the application and become a member. You're honored and welcomed in at your third meeting. Its $25 to join and you have to attend 3 monthly meetings a year and be as active as possible. We are working on getting a website up at this point. We usually get members by word of mouth, when they hear about us, or see us out at an event or plant sale.