Due to the need for social distancing and our vessel being too small to ensure the appropriate precautions, The Charles River Clean Up Boat management has decided to hold off on operations at this time. They will continue to evaluate the situation, and hope to be able to get on the Charles River soon to help keep it clean. For updates, visit https://www.cleanupboat.org/
One of the Garden Club of the Back Bay’s favorite not for profit organizations, The Charles River Clean Up Boat, is holding a fund raiser Wednesday, October 4 from 6 – 8 pm. Boston Duck Tours will depart at the lagoon behind the Cambridgeside Galleria at 6 pm. Enjoy light hors d’oeuvre, beer and wine while motoring on the Charles River. $95 per ticket. For more information call 617-450-0068, or email info@BostonDuckTours.com. If you wish to write a check, make it payable to Charles Riverboat Company and mail to Boston Duck Tours, 4 Copley Place #4155, Boston, MA 02116. The event is sponsored by Charles River Riverboat Company, Boston Duck Tours, and The Museum of Science.
At the Annual Meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay on May 8, the membership approved the following grants for fiscal year 2017. These grants, given to organizations whose mission closely tracks our own, are in addition to $20,000 allocated directly to neighborhood tree care. We thank all our volunteers and supporters, who make the magic happen. Image courtesy of www.tclf.org. The following list is in alphabetical order:
Arnold Arboretum: $1,500 for the Campaign for the Living Collections, to collect and preserve plants of critical conservation value.
Blossom Fund of the Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America: $500
Boston Nature Center/Mass Audubon: $4,000, to support scholarships for their summer camp. Children range in age from 5 – 14 and are from local neighborhoods of Mattapan, Roslindale and Jamaica Plain.
Charles River Clean Up Boat: $2,000
Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee: $5,000 for its tree care program, including Dutch elm disease monitoring and soil improvement.
Emerald Necklace Conservancy: $2,500, to the Olmsted Tree Society for planting a pathway tree.
Esplanade Association: $5,000, for the 2017 critical tree maintenance program, allocated to pruning.
Friends of Copley Square: $1,500 for treating trees for root stress, and for fertilizer and fungicide.
Friends of the Public Garden: $5,000 for tree care and preservation of the historic elms planted on Commonwealth Avenue in the block west of Massachusetts Avenue.
Food Project: $2,000 for building raised bed gardens for Boston residents and community centers.
Mothers Out Front: $1,000 for educating the public on the effects of gas leaks on trees in the urban landscape.
The Annual Meeting of the Garden Club of the Back Bay will take place Monday, May 8 at 5:00 pm at The College Club of Boston, 44 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. We will welcome Tom McNichol from the Charles River Clean Up Boat, a GCBB grant recipient, who will give a short talk on the work of his organization, and following the business meeting where we will vote on grants and select new officers for 2017/2018, there will be a reception. Members will receive written notice, but if you are not a member and wish to attend please email info@bostonflora.com before May 5. Image courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor.
The Garden Club of the Back Bay is proud to support Tom McNichol and the Charles River Clean Up Boat. Below is Tom’s end of season wrap up and a link to an article published in The Boston Globe. To contribute, visit www.cleanupboat.org:
It’s been a wonderful year on the Charles. The Spring was rainy and it upset our schedule for a while, but by the end of June we were right on track.
The 4th of July was a great party and a credit to the City and all the people and organizations involved in putting it on.
For the Clean Up Boat it is always a day we need to prepare for. This year, in an effort to get some new donors, we worked to get some publicity. Anne Benaquist worked hard to get articles in the Cambridge and Newton Tabs. The Metrowest Daily News wrote a nice article on the Clean Up Boat. But nary a donation materialized from these efforts. Peter DeMarco wrote an article in the Globe when we were starting (9 years ago) and it generate a number of donations that got us going. Since this was our 10th year he agreed to do another story, only if I guaranteed that there would be trash. The first time he came, we went all day and got very little trash. So I set it up for him to come right after the 4th, and we did not disappoint him. By the way, David Solomon was the crew for that day, and the article included a nice picture of him.
The volunteers have been wonderful. Always on time. Always cheerful, enthusiastic and hard working. Our schedule was basically full in late July and we have had only a rare cancellation.
We are doing a great job. Last Friday, Bob Gaffney, a 10 year veteran captain of the Clean Up Boat, reported he had never seen the river so clean.
Our combined efforts have kept the river clean, for so long, that people assume it is always clean. Not so, but our efforts have made it so. As always take a few moments and enjoy this unique asset that we have right in the middle of our metropolitan area.
Link to Boston Globe article: http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2013/08/19/tom-mcnichol-for-decade-charles-river-not-unofficial-garbage-man/wZDgF6xZNU5Kb8ZA0s9vLI/story.html
From our friend Tom McNichol of the Charles River Clean Up Boat, a post Fourth of July update:
“We got the river clean early this year with help for the Charles River Yacht Club, and kept it clean until the 4th of July.
Again we all had a world class party, one the whole city can be very proud to be part of. Even the evacuation and rain had little effect on the enthusiasm, and patriotism, displayed. Part of the deal is after every party you have to clean up. We expect it every year, and consider it our contribution to the bash. We started our part of the clean up on July 5th.
Now a little information on fireworks. Every rocket has a tube it is fired from. These tubes are loaded days in advance and each one has a colorful plastic cap covering the upturned end. It’s purpose is to keep water and debris out of the charges prior to firing. When the weather is good these caps are removed prior to firing. This year it is a good thing that they were not removed, as it began to pour just as the first rocket was fired. You guessed it, the down side is hundreds, maybe thousands were fired into the river in addition to the normal residue from the rockets. See attached photos.
We will keep finding them for months as they come out from under docks and the bushes. The good news is, after 4 days on the river, we have picked up all of the obvious ones. The rest we will get on subsequent trips, but you should not see any as you walk along the river. In fact we are back to a clean beautiful river.
Funding wise we are getting to where we need to be. I am sure a number of our supporters just haven’t got around to sending the check.. I need to get on the phone and make some calls. Just not my favorite activity and I tend to procrastinate.
As to volunteers…WOW… we already have crews for every scheduled day for the rest of the year. This is the first time we have filled up so early. Thank you very much, everybody
The boat is running strong, the weather has been clear and dry, for the most part, the river is clean and the concerts are in full swing.
You have played a part in keeping the wonderful playground beautiful. Come out and enjoy.”
If you are interested in making a donation to support the operation of the Clean Up Boat, please contact Tom McNichol at 508.877.3624, or email cleanupboat@yahoo.com.
The Annual Meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay, Inc. took place Monday, May 14, and $66,000 in grants and expenditures were unanimously approved by the membership. Co-President Jackie Blombach is pictured below announcing the grants to the attendees.
Thirty thousand dollars has been set aside for street tree care, including planting, pruning, and inoculating. In addition to this amount, the following organizations will benefit from our Club’s fund raising successes, including our holiday wreath project and our upcoming Twilight Garden Party:
$5,000 to The Friends of Copley Square, for treating with fertilizer and fungicide the diseased trees (the ones not being removed) for root stress due to canker stain and compacted ground conditions.
$5,000 to The Friends of the Public Garden, to continue the inoculation of elms against Dutch elm disease. The street trees to be treated are not on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, but are located on Commonwealth Avenue beyond Massachusetts Avenue.
$5,000 to The Esplanade Association, for the Eliot Memorial Demonstration Garden.
$5,000 to the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee, for its Historic Elm Preservation Project.
$3,000 to the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, to help pay for plant material for the completion of Mother’s Rest, at Boylston Street and The Fenway.
$3,000 to City Roots/Urban Ecology Institute, for plant materials (trees and shrubs) for a project underway in Allston/Brighton, which also includes a citizen science and education component.
$3,000 to the Boston Nature Center of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, supporting some level of scholarships to twenty children for the summer camp. The children range in age from 5 to 14 and are from the local neighborhoods of Mattapan, Roslindale, and Jamaica Plain.
$2,000 to the Charles River Clean Up Boat, helping keep our beloved river trash free.
$500 to the Ellis Neighborhood Association, to inoculate an historic elm tree in the South End against Dutch elm disease. This contribution will cover half the expense of the treatment, with the other half being paid by the Ellis Neighborhood Association.
$500 to The Blossom Fund of The Boston Committee of The Garden Club of America, for our five year fund raising effort to be awarded next year to a project in or around The Rose Kennedy Greenway.
Additionally, we are purchasing four tree fences to be installed in the neighborhood, three in front of The First Lutheran Church on Berkeley Street, and one in front of The French Cultural Center of Boston, on Marlborough Street, at a total cost of $4,000.
We congratulate all our grant recipients, and thank our supporters for giving us the ability to beautify Boston.
Our good friend Tom McNichol of the Charles River Clean Up Boat sent us a “year in review” letter which we’d like to share with you. Tom may be reached at cleanupboat@yahoo.com, if you’d like to put your name on the volunteer list for next season:
Once again, all the news from the river is good. 2011 was a safe and productive season. We had no accidents or injuries. This is most important, as safety is our number one concern.
As to productivity, we kept the Charles looking very good nearly every day this spring, summer and fall. We had great weather. Lots of sunny, comfortable, and dry days. Sure, rain cost us a few days, but the days were spread out and we were able to operate between them. The Charles River Yacht Club and the Boston Gondola folks helped on the first day and gave us a jump start on getting rid of the winter’s accumulation of trash and debris.
The 4th of July celebration was wonderful. The fireworks were world class. The crowd were large and had a great time. Cleaning up after the party was routine. We scheduled extra days and even with the barge fire we had the river back to “mid season form” in about 5 days.
The other great yearly event, the Head of the Charles Regatta, was spectacular, and they had some fair weather.
The new engine ran perfectly all season. Mitch and I pulled the Lisa S on the Friday before the Head of the Charles Regatta . We replaced the rear guard, refastened the rubber rub rail and took care of other minor repairs. Then we took her over to Russo’s for winterizing, a complete servicing, shrink wrap, and storage.
The Lisa S just finished her 6th season (we used a smaller boat the first 2 years). We are on our 3rd set of control cables, second motor and will have to replace the worn out helm (steering) this winter. She gets a great deal of use and has served us well. We will also install a gas filter/water separator to insure the Ethanol laced gasoline we now have to use does not give us problems. Everything to make sure she performs reliably in 2012.
Even the news on funding is good. Somebody is looking over us. Actually somebody is always doing a little extra to help. Here is this year’s story. All year we were behind. I did get on the phone and ask for help, but we were still not whole as of the end of August. In mid September I get a phone call from Torri Zissman. Torri is a second grade teacher at the Rashi School in Dedham. She uses the Charles River as a theme all year long for her students. They learn of the Indians who lived there, take field trips to net some of the small marine life in the river, and lean about the birds and other wildlife. She also covers the issue of taking care of the river, and each May invites Mitch and me to visit her class and talk about the Clean Up Boat. This year, after the presentation, she asked how we were doing for funding. I said we needed some publicity. It had been a number of years since we were on TV or in the newspapers. Torri and her class nominated us for an award from the Bank of America. The Bank decided to give us an award, and with it comes a grant of $5,000. With a few late donations, and one yet to be received promised donation, we will once again be able to pay all our bills for 2011.
By the way, it was Emma, a student in Torri’s class, who, about 5 years ago, told her family and friends not to give her toys for her birthday, but rather make a donation the the Clean Up Boat, as she thought that was more important. I don’t remember the exact amount, but I believe the donations came close to $500. Emma has also come on the boat as a volunteer.
Speaking of volunteers, as always they were great. We did not miss any days for lack of crew. I did crew one day with Bob, due to a mix up in dates, but we didn’t miss any days. I met a number of new friends and some I expect will become long term volunteers.
I was along the river during the Head of the Charles Regatta. Most of the people were looking at the hundreds of shells on the river, while I am looking in the corners by each bridge abutment. I was limited in where I could go, but I did not see one coffee cup, water bottle or other item of floating trash. It’s a great sight to see all the visitors and rowers. I confess to a warm feeling of pride knowing all these people had a beautiful river to enjoy. Each of you should share in that feeling of pride as no one person can clean 7 1/2 miles of river, four days a week, spring, summer and fall by themselves.
There are now hundreds of us doing many different things to help keep the Charles beautiful. By spreading the work, and funding, over many people and organizations, no one person, or organization, has to bear an uncomfortable load. That may be the reason we continue to be viable and effective. It is obvious that most people take pride in their surroundings and know an effort has to be made to keep them attractive and enjoyable. The Charles River is a jewel for all of us to enjoy. Take a walk along her shores and savor the results of your efforts. With her coat of colored leaves, she will give you one more enjoyable afternoon before winter sets in.
See you in the spring.
Thanks in no small part to the continued success of our recent Twilight Garden Party, The Garden Club of the Back Bay announces that the following organizations will receive a total of $20,000 in financial grants for 2011:
The Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee – $5,000 to be credited to the Hereford Street to Massachusetts Avenue air spading project fund.
The Friends of the Public Garden – $4,000 to continue the inoculation of elms at risk for contracting Dutch elm disease.
The Esplanade Association – $2,500 for the Elliot Oval Landscape Restoration, planting new trees and treating trees already on site, near the newly restored Community Boating docks.
Emerald Necklace Conservancy – $2,500 for a planned meadow to be developed with native species and wildflowers.
Boston Nature Center/Massachusetts Audubon Society – $2,500 to support six full scholarships for its summer camp. The children attending the camp range in age from 5 to 14 and are from the local neighborhoods of Mattapan, Roslindale, and Jamaica Plain.
Charles River Clean Up Boat – $2,000, to help continue the project of keeping the Charles River trash-free.
Urban Ecology Institute – $1,000 to help with its Grow Boston Greener tree planting initiative.
The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America – $500 to the Blossom Fund, which is accumulating funds over a five year period to be awarded to a deserving project on or about the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
For more information on all these important organizations and to learn more about the work they do, visit their website links above. In addition to the above grants, The Garden Club of the Back Bay will spend an additional $20,000 on planting, pruning, and treating the street trees in our neighborhood over the coming year. Thank you to all our volunteers and contributors for making our horticultural endeavors happen!
Why should you buy from us? Yes, we know you could order from local florists (at a significantly higher price, we might point out), or from the nurseries or groceries stores (at perhaps a slightly lower cost, with a corresponding drop in quality.) Purchasing our wreaths comes with the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting many wonderful local organizations, in addition to our own.
Each year we make grants to not for profit groups which are making a difference in our lives. In addition to the Friends of the Public Garden and the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee, we donate to the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, the Charles River Clean Up Boat, the Boston Nature Center of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the Esplanade Association, COG, and to City Roots/The Urban Ecology Institute. This is by no means the complete list of beneficiaries (click on to our Projects page on the menu above for details) but we give approximately $20,000 annually to area groups accomplishing great works which we do not have the expertise or manpower to do ourselves. The dollar amount of these grants is dependent upon our earnings, so we urge you to be generous and allow us the opportunity to enhance your holiday environment with our fresh balsam wreaths. We also directly pay for the planting, pruning, and inoculation of the street trees in our neighborhood – another $20,000 annual expenditure, give or take a thousand. As Everett Dirkson used to say, and I paraphrase, “A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” Click HERE for an order form.
