Dear Town of Lyons,
We would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all the people who made the Rocky Mountain Botanic Gardens a reality.
In addition to the rotating cast of regular garden volunteers who we’ve built up over time, the Lyons Volunteers has helped with many of our big projects, and the Lyons Weed Posse has come to tackle particularly weed-infested corners of the garden. Groups from the Sheriff’s Office Alternative Sentencing Work Crew Program have contributed valuable labor. A number of youth groups have joined us for volunteer days, including the Lyons High School Football team, Mormon church teens, and the Lyons LEO club.
The Boulder County Community Sort Yards have kindly delivered staggering quantities of mulch, which is now helping the soil build up organic matter from its sandy river-washed beginnings. The Town of Lyons has been supportive in many ways. We’ve benefited also from grants from the Lyons Community Foundation, and generous donations from individuals.
Many, many people have contributed to the garden, and we’d like to thank them all (and at least some by name!). The all-volunteer Board of Directors for the Rocky Mountain Botanic Garden nonprofit organization is a highly talented group of plant lovers: Garima Fairfax, Betzy Ekstam, Kris Todd, Anthea Rice, and Deirdre Daly. Our cast of regular volunteers who plant, spread mulch, pull weeds, and arrange rocks includes: Peggy Story, Linda Talley, Emily Walker, Jessie Berta-Thompson, Zach Berta-Thompson, Cathy Rivers, Bonnie DiSalvo, Betzy Ekstam, Sandy Spellman, Eileen Yelverton, Caroline Schoo, Cindy Kalyan, Sharon Denton, Calista Morrill, Garima Fairfax, Amy Scanes-Wolfe, Arjen Wynja, and Tosh Golias. Jessie Berta-Thompson has written educational articles for our website. The Lyons Volunteers who built our fence, installed our irrigation line, and planted our One-seeded Juniper trees, among other things, include Rick DiSalvo, Carter Christenson, Mike Karavas, and Barney Dreistadt. The Hunt family, who used to live in a home where our sunflower-ringed patio is now, and the Lyons Garden Club, are each donating a bench. Dave Hawkins brought us loads of recycled cardboard used for sheet mulching. Dave Hirt, Plant Ecologist with Boulder County Parks and Open Space, made our mountains of mulch possible. Town of Lyons staff members from Town Hall and Parks & Recreation have helped with many projects.
With apologies to anyone we’ve missed, thank you all! Everyone who has worked on this project is a part of the garden you see when you pass by. It is incredible how much enthusiasm and energy comes with each volunteer, and all the volunteers constantly add their own creativity and ideas as the garden grows, making this an amazing community project to have in our town.
Signed, Garima Fairfax, director, and Jessie Berta-Thompson, writer
