May 2026
By Kat Resanovich, Volunteer Coordinator & Educator
Volunteers Sue Jones, Taryn Jirousek, and Pat Dailey with Executive Directory, Whitney Lash Marshall on Mother’s Day
As a non-profit nature center, fundraising is an essential part of our organization and what helps us be able to maintain our preserve, put on educational programs, and almost everything we do. Each year in May we have two major fundraisers that are only possible because of hundreds of hours of volunteer work. Our Mother’s Day Garden Tour and Native Plant Sale are more than just fundraisers, but also huge community events that are an annual tradition for many people around Central New York. Both of these events take a huge amount of planning and support from our volunteers to happen.
The Mother’s Day Garden Tour is an event that’s been going on for over 20 years and is possible because of an amazing partnership with the Hanford family at Sycamore Hill Gardens. The Hanfords not only let us use their gardens for the event, but also donate a lot of their time to help us get ready for the event. In the weeks leading up to the event our A-Team Stewardship Volunteers spent dozens of hours over at the Gardens helping to get them ready for the tour. In particular every time I heard from volunteers Linda Church, Sue Roche, and Patti Connor it seemed like they were deep in the maze helping to tie back branches so hundreds of families could explore its twists and turns during the Garden Tour. Last year the A-Team even helped pull literal tons of invasive species out of the pond to protect the pond ecosystem and get it ready for the Garden Tour. It’s amazing to see how the A-Team is dedicated to stewarding not just our preserve but our entire community. So many of them spend many hours outside of the typical Wednesday workdays over at Sycamore Hill helping take care of the Garden and get it ready for the event.
Board members and volunteers Claire Dunn, Rick Weber, Guy Swenson, and Brandy Colebrook getting ready to be greeters and parkers at the Native Plant Sale
On the actual day of the event, over 45 volunteers helped welcome thousands of people to the gardens to celebrate Mother’s Day. This event reminded me of how amazing our volunteer community is, because there are so many people that are so flexible and ready to jump in almost anywhere to help. When we have had to make last minute changes, like transitioning half of our parking to the high school and having a shuttle bus, many of our volunteers jumped in to help down at the high school with parking and check-in. Two of our Board Members Rick Weber and Pat Dailey stepped in as announcers on the bus to share information about Baltimore Woods and help people get on and off. Our parking volunteers up at Sycamore Hill dealt with ever changing rain and mud conditions and made sure that everyone was able to park safely without getting stuck in the mud. At the Gardens we had dozens of volunteers spread around helping out with check-in, raffles, handing out maps and giving directions, taking photos, and more. This event is mostly staffed by volunteers and I really enjoyed learning from those volunteers who have been a part of this event for many years.
Our Board of Directors are a huge part of both fundraisers, but the Native Plant Sale has its own committee of Board members and non-Board volunteers that help plan the event. Leading up to the event, the plant sale committee helps with securing vendors for the sale, picking up plants to sell, organizing raffles, and more. One committee member, John Gilrein, even grew the beautiful trilliums that were for sale this year. Just like most of our other events, our A-Team stewardship volunteers helped to set-up for the event the Wednesday prior to the sale. The first day of the sale we had a fantastic crew of volunteers who helped to get the vendor areas ready, prep food, help vendors set up their plants, and set up the raffles. This was my first year seeing the set-up for the Plant Sale and one part I really enjoyed was watching when the plant vendors would show up. A small army of volunteers would rush over to their cars to help safely unload and set up their plants. So many of the vendors remarked at how they were able to unload and get set-up so much faster than they expected because of the fantastic crew of volunteers.
Volunteer Ann Furze helping a vendor set up their plants at the Native Plant Sale
When the event actually kicked off we had over 30 volunteers that helped with everything from parking, sales, and greeting people as they came in. A very special set of plant sale volunteers are Kathy and Bob Brown who have been volunteering for over 20 years. The Browns are on the plant sale committee, but if you’ve ever been to the plant sale you’ll know them as the fantastic chefs who are grilling food all day. The Browns have been donating and cooking food for the plant sale for over years and we appreciate their delicious contributions that make this event so special. Bob and Kathy said that they continue to volunteer at these events because “they believe in our mission and want this place to be here for their children and grandchildren”. Our volunteers are such a hard working group, and I really enjoyed getting to see their joy and excitement at the plant sale. It’s really special getting to see some of our volunteers like John Gilrein and Greg McGee that have a lot of plant knowledge get to share information and help shoppers pick out the right plants for their homes. Other volunteers like Fran Lawlor brought so much joy and excitement as they danced to the Kambuyu Marimba players. If you saw Fran at the event she was likely dancing while directing you where to park. Our volunteers bring so much to these events and we not only appreciate their time and hard work but their commitment, passion, and excitement. It truly makes these events special.
All in all, these events were once again a huge success and it was due to the amazing support, hard work, and commitment of our volunteers. Although this is a busy and stressful time for staff because of all of the events and programs that are going on, I also really enjoyed this time because it was really incredible to see how our volunteer community comes together in full force to support our organization. Thank you to all of the volunteers who were a part of these events in any way, we appreciate all of your hard work during this very busy season!
If you’re interested in getting involved in volunteering, fill out our volunteer interest form: https://baltimorewoods.org/volunteer-request-for-information/ or reach out to [email protected]