As you walk through our entrance gates have you ever wondered how our grounds are kept in such a beautiful state. Well wonder no more – it’s done by volunteers. Next time you are at the club, have a look at the gardens and all the flowers and trees that surround our greens. Yes they are a wonderful sight but who does this? All of our gardening is done by a small group of members who willingly volunteer their time. I wonder how many of our members are aware of who does this and how often do members actually take the time to thank our gardeners for the work that they do. Who are these volunteers – Lizzy Fraikin, Anneke Rubingh, Jennifer Harley, Cathy Denny and Diane McMorran. In the past many others have helped in this area and two members that were our resident experts were Georgia and Marcia Thornecroft. I know that in the past there have been many others that have volunteered in this area and their contributions have helped shape our gardens and make them such a wonderful sight. If you like to be outside and are capable of gardening please contact Diane McMorran who can let you know what is involved and how much time it would take if you did volunteer some of your time. With more volunteers the time necessary to get everything done decreases dramatically so let’s try to get a few more volunteers to help out in this area. Sharing the load is always better than placing that load on the shoulders of just a few.
Many of us never see members cutting the grass surrounding our greens. They never see the members using our weedeaters so that grass near the backboards and around the benches is properly trimmed. And who does this – yes this too is done by volunteers. Most members never see the times Barrie Bolton is at the club by himself ensuring the lawn mowers and other equipment are working and properly serviced. Over the last few years we have had a number of members helping out in this area. Those people who had volunteered and those that currently volunteer include(d) Garry Anderson, Andrew Harley, David Anderson, Don Clark, Jack Coupe, Steve Dix, Bart Griffin, Peter Insley, Mel Jones, Ian MacMorran, Barrie Bolton and Colin Scott coming out throughout the year to make sure the lawn outside of the greens was cut on a regular basis and the ditches of our greens were kept free of weeds. With COVID the number of people coming out has been drastically reduced so we only have about 4 people coming out on a regular basis so we need your help. It’s hard to thank these people if you never see them doing this but now you know who they are so please pass on your thanks to all of them – they make a real difference. We have electric self-propelled lawn mowers so just about anyone can use them. You just need to hold onto them and basically walk around the property and as Shell Bussey would say “it’s just that easy”. So if you can help out contact Barrie Bolton. With more members volunteering in this area it reduces the number of times people have to come out to look after this area. Sharing the workload makes it much easier for all those that volunteer so please help out.
What would our club look like if these members did not volunteer their time – it would be a mess, members would find another club and the neighbours would be complaining to your Executive and to the District of Oak Bay. So it’s vital to have these volunteers do the work that they do and it would be great if just some of our other members would step forward and lend a hand in this work. As they say “actions speak louder than words” so please take action and reach out to Diane McMorran or Barrie Bolton and volunteer a small part of your time to make our Club an even better place than it is right now. Thanks to all our volunteers.
Brent Merchant, A/President OBLB
