Co-President’s Message -November  2025

As we don’t do a newsletter in December, I will use this month to reflect back on our year and how wonderfully diverse it was. 

Jan Byers and her committee brought us an amazing array of programs from vermicomposting to Ecuadorian chocolate to bees and orchids while Linda Beltz and her monthly bakers provided refreshments to keep us happily munching during said programs. 

Thanks to Robin Ecklund & Karen Janata, we traded plants and then Sandy Knapmiller, Faleesha Hindman & Micaela Brown organized the voting on our garden beauties. Janelle Wagner & Carolyn Kerr found delightful places for us to go on field trips and many of us worked weekly around town in gardens that ranged from roses to radishes. And next month Janell Cannon & Karen Janata ably assisted by JoAnn Dinser have another fun holiday luncheon planned for us. A good year indeed. 

I moved to Colorado in 2016 and joined Hoe & Hope in June of ’18 – though unable to recall how exactly I found you, but happily I did. In the fall of that year, a wonderful member I won’t name (Robin) asked me if I might run Membership the following year and I said yes. I did that job until 2022 when I said yes again and became President with Debbie Arnold acting as my officially termed “assistant” – aka, she held my hand as I stumbled through that year. For the next 2 yrs I was on my own in that capacity and then this year I was delighted to share the position with Mary Polk who will solely hold the title in 2026. I have worked with amazing board members who made my time in this position easier and enjoyable. 

So, I may have moved off the board, but I have already slid into the Scholarship Committee chair (sorry, poor pun) and look forward to continuing to help out this wonderful organization in many ways thereby providing me with opportunities to meet and get to know members I may not otherwise have. As we vote this month for our new board and pass around volunteer sheets for next year, I encourage you to consider working on one of our many great committees – time very well spent. 

 Connie