July 2024

Dear Volunteers,

Happy July! We hope that you all have been enjoying the warm weather and finding ways to stay cool. There are a lot of opportunities to continue engaging with the Gardens throughout the summer, and we hope that you will join us!

Flower Piano is our annual community music festival featuring pianos throughout San Francisco Botanical Garden. This year we will feature a special Opening Night on September 12 and ten days of festivities from September 13-22. In addition to open play and a schedule full of performances and programs, Flower Piano Lounge will also return this year. 

We have volunteer opportunities each day of the event ranging from greeting to ushering, and everything in between. 

In addition, if you gather up a group of 5 to 20 colleagues, classmates, or friends you'd like to volunteer with, please consider registering as a volunteer service group during Flower Piano. We feature special group volunteer opportunities during this time that allow teams to help during the event. 

Learn more about volunteering at Flower Piano and register for a spot today >>

Summer Stride
Saturday, July 27, 10:30am-2:30pm
San Francisco Botanical Garden - Great Meadow

5-6 Volunteers Requested!

All volunteers are welcome to sign-up for this event, no training required. Join us as we celebrate summer with the San Francisco Public Library at San Francisco Botanical Garden's Great Meadow. Throughout the day, this incredible event will include:

During this event, volunteer duties will include greeting and welcome guests, counting guests with a clicker, and general interaction with those in the program.

Register here >> 

Book Group: Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence
Thursday, August 8, 10am- 2pm
Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture

All Gardens volunteers are invited to our next Book Group event. The next book group will discuss Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence by Paco Calvo. We hope to see you there!

Register here >> 

Programs & Partnerships is excited to welcome Bennett Olupo to our Public Programs team from July-September. Bennett is a recent graduate from Yale School of the Environment. Bennett is excited to work with the Gardens of Golden Gate Park through the Yale Environmental Fellows Program. We’re grateful to the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation for sponsoring the Yale Environmental Fellows Program and providing this wonderful connection. 

Bennett plans to use his background in education, community organizing, and food sovereignty to help create fulfilling, holistic experiences for the people who visit the Gardens. If you see him, feel free to talk to him about Minnesota, food sovereignty, basketball (his favorite player is Klay Thompson), hiking, and global affairs. The Environmental Fellows Program (EFP) at the Yale School of the Environment (YSE) is a 12-week summer fellowship opportunity that seeks to diversify the environmental field by cultivating the career aspirations of master’s and doctoral students from historically underrepresented groups by connecting students to work opportunities in environmental nonprofits, grant makers, and government sectors.

We are also excited to welcome Bin Goh to the Gardens! Bin is joining the Advancement Team as the new Membership Manager overseeing the membership program as well as annual fund gifts less than $1,000. 

Bin comes to the Gardens after 8 years at the Contemporary Jewish Museum where she was most recently the Membership and Development Operations Manager having started her career at the museum as a Visitor Services Associate in 2016. Bin holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from San Francisco State University with an emphasis on nonprofit administration and a Bachelor of Arts degree from The University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom and Singapore in Interior Design. Welcome, Bin!

Additionally, three Gardens of Golden Gate Park staff members were promoted and will take on higher level responsibilities within their departments. Jenn Tapler has been promoted to Senior Program Manager, Marissa Fong has been promoted to Senior Marketing and Communications Manager, and Anne Carper has been promoted to Philanthropy Manager. Congratulations to all!

Bookstore Construction is beginning! Starting Monday, July 15, the Bookstore will be under construction for approximately 45 days. This project has been years in the making and will allow our store to be ADA compliant and accessible to all. During this time, the Bookstore and Plant Shop will remain open with a pop-up stand in the same general area. This won't impact volunteer shifts. We're excited for the new porch!

The Gardens were well represented at the American Public Gardens Association (APGA) Annual Conference in Boston the last week of June. It was the most well attended in APGA history with more than a thousand participants. We look forward to co-hosting the conference in June 2026 with Filoli. Former San Francisco Botanical Garden Intern, Sarah Callan, now Interpretation & Exhibits Program Manager at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens gave a great tour of their children’s garden at the APGA Leadership Summit.

Thank you for being a part of our volunteer community, we hope to see you in the Garden sometime soon!

Warmly,

Jenn

Jenn Tapler | Interim Volunteer Program Manager

Gardens of Golden Gate Park 

(415) 661-1316 Ext. 404

jtapler@gggp.org

P.S. Did you miss an update? Catch up by viewing past newsletters. 

Gardens of Golden Gate Park

1199 9th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94122