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July 2023
Dear Volunteers,
I'm delighted to share two wonderful ways to volunteer this fall. You can now register to volunteer at Flower Piano this September and apply to join the first cohort of Gardens of Golden Gate Park interpretive volunteers which will begin training this October. If you know someone who might be interested in joining either opportunity, please share the volunteer application form with them.
Flower Piano 2023
As always, we have an exciting array of volunteer opportunities during Flower Piano which will take place from September 8 - 12. This year we're debuting the Flower Piano Lounge in the Celebration Garden on Thursday, September 7. The Flower Piano Lounge will feature amazing programming, along with food and beverage vendors each day, and we're happy to feature special volunteer assignments to help support this space. Whether you love to spend time in the Botanical Garden or chat with visitors - or both! - we have an opportunity for you.
In addition, if you have a group of colleagues, classmates, or friends you'd like to gather to volunteer together, please consider registering as a volunteer service group.
Join Our Interpretive Volunteer Community
Are you interested in engaging with visitors around botany and biodiversity? Do you have a passion for all things green? Gardens of Golden Gate Park is recruiting new volunteers to join our interpretive volunteer community. Interpretive volunteers serve as ambassadors for the diverse, unique, and important living collections at the Conservatory of Flowers, Japanese Tea Garden, and San Francisco Botanical Garden. Our next session of training for new volunteers will begin this October. To learn more details about this training session and our fall schedule, visit the link below.
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Enrichments, Events, and Trainings
Book Group: An Immense World by Ed Yong
Thursday, August 10, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture, Botanical Garden
We're excited to invite all active volunteers to join our next Book Group event. The next book will be An Immense World by Ed Yong. If you would like to purchase a copy through our online Bookstore, please visit this link.
Register here >>
Tour of Dandelion Chocolate Factory
Saturday, August 19, 10:00 am
Meet at Dandelion Chocolate, 2600 16th Street, San Francisco
How do the fruits of the cacao tree Theobroma cacao become chocolate? Find out as we take a tour of Dandelion Chocolate's historic brick 16th Street factory with an expert Chocolate Educator. View the entire production line, and enjoy plenty of samples, from fresh cacao pulp to finished chocolate. We'll also dive deeper into chocolate history, as well as Dandelion’s sourcing and production processes. Please update your registration if you are not able to attend.
Register here >>
Public Event: Nature Swagger: Stories and Visions of Black Joy in the Outdoors
Sunday, August 27, 4:00 - 5:30 pm
Redwood Grove, Botanical Garden
Join Gardens of Golden Gate Park for a nature reading and conversation with Outdoor Afro Founder and CEO Rue Mapp. We will explore the author's first book, Nature Swagger: Stories and Visions of Black Joy in the Outdoors. This garden experience is an opportunity to learn how nature and botanical gardens intersect with our everyday lifestyles. Through Outdoor Afro, Mapp oversees a carefully selected and trained staff and national volunteer leadership team. Since Outdoor Afro's inception in 2009 as a blog, Rue has captured the attention and support of millions through a multimedia approach that is grounded in personal connections and community organizing. We're excited to welcome Mapp to the Gardens and hope you can join this free public event. Even if you can't join the event, please help spread the word!
Register here for this public event >>
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Welcome Back, Garden Camp!
Garden Camp began another wonderful season at the Gardens on June 20! We're excited for another summer of Garden Camp and want to share some reminders as we begin the summer session:
Garden Camp exists beyond the Children’s Garden. The Children’s Garden team has their own busy programming going on at the same time as Garden Camp. You’ll likely run into Garden Camp kids all over the Gardens!
You're welcome to interact with camp groups to enrichen their experience at the Gardens. However, if you ever notice a camp group that looks like they’re getting into something they shouldn’t and not adhering to the rules, please reach out to Jenn Tapler directly at her email jtapler@gggp.org or 415-320-8196. If you must talk to a camp group about behavior, please only speak to the counselors. They will relay your message to the campers.
There are more than just Garden Campers in the Gardens. We have a lot of visiting summer camp groups this year. Not all children you see are part of our program, but all groups should be aware of the rules. The same guidelines as shared above applies – if you must speak with a group about their behavior, always locate the adults of the group.
Garden Camp will spend Thursdays in the Library. You may see us popping in and out of the Library on Thursdays, but the Library will still be closed to the general public.
Do you have additional questions about Garden Camp? Reach out to Jenn Tapler at jtapler@gggp.org.
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Staffing Updates
We thank Yianni Gogonas, Mesoamerican Cloud Forest Section Gardener, and Brendan O’Keefe, California Native Plant Section Gardener, for their work at the Botanical Garden as they have departed for new assignments within the Department. Coming on board as Gardeners at the Botanical Garden, we welcome Captain Evan Brenner and Ahmed Baradah who both officially started with us this July! We hope you'll give them a warm hello at the Gardens.
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Slices of Joy
- Scarlet the Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus titanum) bloomed in the afternoon on Monday, July 3 at the Conservatory of Flowers attracting nearly 4,000 visitors between her bloom night and the following day. A tremendous thank you to volunteers Paul, Asha, Jason, Adriel, Tony, Betsy, Anne, Carol, Jean, Michele, Eric, Susan, and Mary for connecting with visitors around this event - both day and night! Visitors were excited to learn all that they could about Scarlet and reported coming from as far as Sacramento, Reno, and even Denver. If you would like to learn more about the significance of this bloom event and view the interpretive volunteer training event for the Corpse Flower, you can visit it here. In addition, Scarlet received press coverage in The Guardian, SF Gate, KTVU Fox 2, KQED, and San Francisco Chronicle. Thank you again to everyone who made this an event to remember!
- New interactive 'Plant Packs' can now be borrowed by young people and their families or caregivers when they visit the Conservatory of Flowers. The backpacks contain activities to encourage young visitors to find iconic plants in each Conservatory gallery, touch specimens including a pitcher plant leaf and cacao pod, and utilize tools like a magnifying glass and measuring tape. Recommended for ages ~5-12, the packs are available for all visitors to check out as they enter the Conservatory of Flowers.
- In other news, the Japanese Tea Garden was featured in SF Gate in the article “Discover the Japanese Tea Garden, a quieter corner of Golden Gate Park.”
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Please note that I will be out of the office from July 27 - August 8. During this time, please continue to use your Volunteer Portal to manage your registration for volunteer assignments and reach out to your staff contacts if you must report a change in your schedule and cc: Jamie Chan, Director of Programs and Partnerships at jchan@gggp.org.
Best wishes,
Crystal
Crystal Lee Stone | Volunteer Program Manager
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Gardens of Golden Gate Park
P (415) 661-1316 Ext. 400
9am-5pm, M-F
clstone@gggp.org
P.S. Did you miss an update? Catch up by viewing past newsletters on Volunteer Central.
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Give, join, renew, or upgrade your membership here
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Gardens of Golden Gate Park
1199 9th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94122
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