BLOOMIN’ BEAUTIES

Gina Scola simply can’t wait for summer to arrive.

“I have a raised planter bed, and every year I grow my own tomatoes and make homemade spaghetti sauce from all my tomatoes,” the South Barrington resident exclaims. “I’m Italian. I love to cook.”

Scola not only loves to tend to the garden in which those treasured tomatoes and so much more are planted, but also loves to learn more and more about the art of gardening. Indeed, there was a time not so long ago when she would never dare refer to herself as a gardener, per se.

That is, until she joined the South Barrington Garden Club.

“The year after I joined, I planted an herb garden and I had never really done that before,” remembers Scola, who joined the club in 2019 at the urging of one of her neighbors. “I might have bought a pot of rosemary or something at Goebberts, but I never really planted my own fruit, vegetable, or herb garden. But when I did and everybody was admiring what I did, I was shocked. I learned it all through the (South Barrington) Garden Club.”

Celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, the South Barrington Garden Club has long taken the often timid hands of countless community members and taught them the countless ways in which tending a garden can ultimately help them better tend to their entire lives.

“I didn’t know what to expect at all though when I first joined,” admits Scola. “I wasn’t sure in the beginning if it was just a bunch of ladies sitting around and showing you how to plant seeds and how often to water your plants. I had no idea.”

However, Scola quickly learned that the club does so much more. From hands-on projects to floral demonstrations and from field trips to educational opportunities, the South Barrington Garden Club finds itself as one of the area’s most thriving organizations, while also allowing for its members to create lifelong friendships with one another.

“There are people in the (South Barrington) Garden Club who are master gardeners, and others who will probably never have a green thumb, but what’s important is the friendships we have with one another ” reflects Scola, who has lived in South Barrington for the past 10 years. “After every meeting, we always go for lunch to one of the local restaurants and a lot of us have really become friends outside of the club and go on girls’ getaways.”

But just as important is the work that the South Barrington Garden Club collectively does for others, in the form of the group’s various philanthropic efforts.

“It’s really nice helping the community beautify the community, donating projects to nursing homes and giving kids scholarships and such,” Scola explains of the philanthropic efforts of the group, whose members come from not only the South Barrington area, but also from towns such as Hoffman Estates, Algonquin, and Park Ridge. “It’s just great because when we do our events, which is once a year for fundraising, every penny goes back into the community.”

And that will certainly be the case come July 13 when the South Barrington Garden Club will hold their annual fundraiser “Jingle & Mingle” at Pinstripes in the Arboretum. The event will include shopping, a fashion show, door prizes, raffles, and a silent auction.

And it’s Scola’s favorite event of the year.

“I love the fundraiser,” she explains. “I love meeting with local businesses and through the fundraiser, showing them how we can bring exposure to their business while they in turn help us give back to the community. I really think that since COVID, that’s even more important. Many places have suffered business wise. But I really love getting to know everyone in the community and surrounding communities on a more personal level and all of us working to achieve a goal of helping the community out.”

Events such as “Jingle & Mingle” also help to expose the South Barrington Garden Club to a younger generation of women eager to not only expand their social circle and help their community, but also learn some of the basic lessons of life.

“A couple of months back, we did a program about how to cook with different herbs,” remembers Scola. “Anybody can relate to that and expand their horizons in that way. You don’t necessarily have to be digging in the dirt, which is nice.”

The South Barrington Garden Club meets on the first Thursday of the month at 9:30 a.m. at the South Barrington Park District. For more information, visit sbgclub.org.