Elmhurst Garden Club award highlights partnership with Park District

The Park District is proud to partner with a number of affiliate groups in the community who serve Elmhurst in ways which reflect the District’s mission and values. Elmhurst Garden Club is one such organization. Earlier this summer, the Garden Club was nationally recognized for several community projects, including one in which the Elmhurst Park District was proud to collaborate and assist the Garden Club.

National Garden Clubs, Inc. awarded the club three first place awards in the categories of Community Gardens, Community Beautification and Butterfly Sustentation. The Community Gardens Award reflects the club’s year-and-half commitment to the Monarch Initiative, a movement to educate, create and restore the habitat of monarch butterflies. The award is also exemplary of the partnership the club has with the Park District.

The award recognized several activities. In July 2017, the club hosted the Children’s Monarch Festival in July 2017 in conjunction with their Elmhurst Garden Walk & Faire, an annual event partially sponsored by Elmhurst Park District.

The Elmhurst Garden Club also provided the Park District with two different kinds of milkweed seeds for planting a new Monarch Waystation in Butterfield Park. Milkweed is an important resource, being the only food source for Monarch Butterflies. Twelve flats of tropical and common milkweed were also planted in four other Park District parks that contain Certified Monarch Waystations.

The Elmhurst Park District and Elmhurst Garden Club both maintain a strong commitment to the Elmhurst community and the Park District continues to enjoy collaborating with the organization in their goal of restoring the monarch’s habitat.