Pat Ellard

By: centraljersey.com
It was about as cold as the Princeton area ever gets, with the wind chill down in single digits. The walls of the greenhouse groaned with the wind, but heaters kept the temperature inside tolerable.
Inside the greenhouse at Terhune Orchards, 40 members of The Garden Club of Princeton worked on miniature arrangements of greens and decorations to accompany Red Cross Meals on Wheels deliveries. The Garden Club of Princeton has been making these arrangements since 1974, when there were only 10 Meals on Wheels clients in the Princeton area.
Now there are 70, but the Club ever rises to the occasion, making more as the need rises. Diane Concannon, director of Public Relations for the Red Cross of Central New Jersey, says that when the volunteers deliver these arrangements to elderly and homebound clients, the decorations are cherished and displayed in a place of honor. Diane tells me that the recipients are touched by the gesture. Knowing that Garden Club members created each beautiful decoration with them in mind makes it a very special gift.
And the decorations are obviously fun to make. They are made out of various types of greens from members’ gardens and are anchored in a light-but-stable base. Created out of sprigs of evergreens, they look like tiny trees. The bases, wrapped with fancy ribbon and filled with snippets of greens, are adorned with various baubles bought in bulk and lying in baskets on the ornament table.
Chatter fills the greenhouse as nimble fingers do their work. Diane says each of the 70 clients of Meals on Wheels is looking forward to getting his or her arrangement. "They have already been asking when they will come," she says. So the members work steadily – each one needs to make two arrangements if there are to be enough to go around.
The conversation at a table stops from time to time as members get up to get ornaments for their arrangements, but it picks up again as the workers return with goodies to enliven them. Tiny balls, drums, or other ornaments add sparkle to the decorations (and to the eyes of the decoration’s creator). Each arrangement is a small work of art. Like the ladies, each one is different; each one attractive.
This traditional project means a lot to the women of The Garden Club of Princeton. One young member actually came on crutches, but she wanted to be with the group and do her part. These little "trees" really are treasured, and that means that making them is special.
Diane Concannon says that for some of the clients, the Red Cross volunteer’s visit might be the only interaction they have with the "outside world" that day. No wonder the trees are so treasured! Yes, she says, over time the greens dry out. Leaves and needles may drop, but the bright ornaments don’t lose their sparkle. Receiving these "trees" is a sparkling moment for the Meals on Wheels client, just as making it is for the women of the Princeton Garden Club.
The Garden Club of Princeton is a charter member of The Garden Club of America, which has 199 member clubs with over 17,500 members in 40 states. For more information, visit www.princetonol.com/groups/gcp/or www.gcamerica.org.
To reach the Red Cross of Central New Jersey, call 609-951-8550 or visit www.njredcross.org.