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This page was prepared by Ruth Bronson and represents her thoughts. For a different view of our history consult the January 2004 newsletter. How we came into being and what we have done. One of the most successful garden groups in the last twenty plus years is the Albuquerque Area Master Gardeners. It is a program that allows gardeners to learn more about their favorite activity and at the same time gives them an opportunity to be of service to their community. Albuquerque in 1980 was nearly all east of the Rio Grande with only Paradise Hills and Taylor Ranch subdivisions on the west mesa. I-40 was just recently finished and Paseo del Norte was still only a dream. Rosalie Doolittle was a Saturday morning talk show host on KZIA about gardening. Our population was growing rapidly with many newcomers who had many questions about how to garden in this environment. Jim Sais was the Bernalillo County Extension Agent at the time and he had heard of the Master Gardener program that was started in the Pacific Northwest. Like many county agents across the country he was overburdened by phone calls with questions about gardening. He spoke with Marie Torrens who was involved with the Albuquerque Council of Garden Clubs about his problem trying to answer all of the phone calls and told her about the Master Gardener program he had learned of in a regional Extension Service Conference. At that time Marie felt that there would not the public support for such a program The Extension Service offices were at that time housed in the old Sears building in downtown Albuquerque. They had no facilities that could be used as a training center but the Albuquerque Council of Garden Clubs had a fine new building located in the northeast heights where there was a large meeting room. For a Council of Garden Clubs to have a meeting place that they owned free and clear is quite unusual. The Council had built the Center on grounds donated for their use by the city of Albuquerque. This Garden Center has won National Awards year after year for the quality of the building and the activities that are held there. The Council needed projects by which they could raise money to maintain the building and the grounds surrounding it. Jim had suggested to Marie on a number of occasions that their best money raising projects should be ones that sold their greatest asset, their gardening expertise. In November of 1980, Jim guest hosted a radio program for Rosalie Doolittle, a well-known gardening expert who had written "Southwest Gardening" a book especially for this area, when Rosalie had been ill. During the airing Jim mentioned that he needed help with answering questions on gardening that he received every day at his office. Listening to that radio program was Ruth Bronson a fairly new resident of Albuquerque. She had been involved to a small degree with one of the local plant societies and was looking for some kind of service project to be involved in. She had talked to a number of her friends and five of them had agreed that if there were a service organization that was garden oriented they would like to join such a group. Jim mentioned that there was such an organization. in other parts of the country. Ruth called him and volunteered that she would like to work in such an organization. She told him that she had five volunteers for him. They were Ellen Reed, Sheila Doucette, Kate Kuligowski, Lee Sherman and herself. (Of those five, two are still active in the program after 20 years.) Jim took Ruth's phone number and promised to call her as soon as he could. When he called they talked about the program and Ruth was very eager to work on planning it with him but Jim said he must talk to Marie first. Jim called Marie and told her he thought that he had enough people to get started on the project. Marie went at once to the Garden Council and asked that they sponsor such a group. Marie is an excellent organizer and with Jim and a group of other people from the council set up the course. In the meantime Jim was promoted to Urban Horticulturist for the northern portion of the state and John Chapell was hired to replace him. John received national credit for starting the program in Bernalillo County but it actually was Jim Sais who did much of the work. There was no charge for the series of classes and the planners initially expected to get only a small class but 40 people were there that January day in 1981. Classes were planned for 10 weeks. People from the Extension Service and other gardening experts from the Albuquerque area taught the classes. The class was enthusiastic and eager to start answering calls on the Hotline, which was set up in the library of the Garden Center on phones provided and paid for by the Garden Council. The Albuquerque Master Gardener program was off to a flying start. Marie had organized a committee that was responsible for the various aspects of the program. One person was assigned to take attendance; another was responsible for seeing that the brochures and other handouts were available etc. As chairperson, Marie reported directly to the Garden Council. Thirty-eight delighted gardeners became Master Gardeners that year. They were anxious to get on with the business of being Master Gardeners and with building this new service organization. Marie continued to chair the organization for two more years while the program evolved. Each year there were more eager students and each year new activities were added to the list of approved projects. In 1983 Master Gardeners held the first Master Gardener Educational Fair. Interested Master Gardeners held this in August on a weekend and featured all kinds of free educational exhibits made by Master Gardeners in the class. Ruth Bronson generated the idea and she served as chairman. It was very successful. When Marie felt that the Master Gardener program was well enough established she turned over the chairmanship to Susan Wachter. Susan had been a Master Gardener in Colorado in a county where the program eventually was dissolved. Susan said she thought the failure was due to a lack of money. The Albuquerque program had begun charging a fee for people to take the course and those who completed the course and the required 40 hours of community service were refunded the full amount. The moneys retained from those who did not complete the course or the service hours, were used to pay the phone bills for the Hot line and for other incidental expenses. The Extension Service picked up the tab for the newsletter mailing and also paid for the brochures. The Garden Council provided the meeting place and the place for the Hotline as well, and provided for publicity through their newsletter. So there was no danger of this program failing for lack of money. The Board that Marie had so carefully nurtured and developed fell into inactivity. The always important and constant exchange of ideas from the Board ceased. Susan was chairman for two years. However, the program continued to evolve. Master Gardeners was considered a committee of the Council. As the number of Master Gardeners grew and grew and more and more people wanted to join the program not only for the knowledge they gained but also for the fellowship of other devoted gardeners it became apparent that it was becoming a case of the "tail wagging the dog". Ruth had always been involved with some part of the program. She had served in many different capacities and in 1986 Robert Cox who succeeded John Chappell, who had retired, appointed her as chairman. Ruth reinstituted the Board and made it active and involved with all the MG functions. Additionally, one of her goals was to make the Master Gardeners a separate organization, which would be a member of the Garden Council just as other Garden clubs and plant societies were. As Council members they would have all the privileges and responsibilities that any other member organization had. During the following four years, that was accomplished. A Constitution and by-laws was written and adopted. The Council accepted the new organization as a member. Robert Cox moved on to a position in Colorado and Albuquerque Area Master Gardeners were without an Extension Agent advisor. In 1988 The Extension Service finally hired Curtis Smith as agent. Curtis had had little experience with the Extension Service and none with Master Gardeners so Ruth continued to chair the program. The Extension Office had been most cooperative with Master Gardeners during the period when there was no agent and as Curtis took over his duties he learned about the functioning of Master Gardeners. During this period Sanky Trimble, a retired newspaperman (since deceased.), suggested to the Board that they obtain a logo. Sanky was delegated to seek one and he did so through his newspaper connections. That logo while somewhat modified, is still in use. It is used on our business cards and on the newsletter as well as on the caps and t-shirt recently made available and is shown at the beginning of this web site. Under the new by-laws a number of committee chairpersons were elected to lead the organization and each year more individuals became Master Gardeners and took on the duties of keeping the group functioning. Today the Master Gardeners have stabilized at about 200 active members. Many different activities have been added to the calendar. These include the seeds program in which Master Gardeners go in to classrooms and teach 3rd grade children how to plant seeds and start a garden, and a library program where MG's each week consult with library visitors about their garden problems. With EFNEP ,a program to teach nutrition and child care to low income adults, Master Gardeners help clients in gardening. A Share the Produce program begun by Maurice Munzer (now deceased), gives the Road Runner Food Bank and other charitable groups excess produce from home gardens. At Garden Center plant sales, Master Gardeners are available to help in many different ways. At the State Fair Master Gardeners answer question at the flower shows sponsored by the Garden Council. Master Gardeners give many talks to many groups through the Garden Council sponsored Speakers Bureau. Video taping of all the classes is now standard and the tapes are available for those who need them. In addition to developing the Bernalillo County program the Albuquerque group has trained people from the surrounding counties and those have turned into groups that are developing their own Master Gardener organizations. Sandoval County to the north of Albuquerque is one such group. This group also offers basic gardening classes to the public. The success of the Bernalillo county program has also prompted the Extension Service to sponsor similar programs in other counties in the state. Curtis Smith is responsible for assisting the other counties in establishing these programs. The number of veteran Master Gardeners remains high and a number of these have been given the title of Lifetime Master Gardener. The first to receive this honor was Rosalie Doolittle (since deceased). Marie Torrens received the honor two years later and the following year Ruth Bronson was given the title. Since then all the remaining Master Gardeners from the first class have been given this award Ellen Reed, Katherine Neely(deceased), and Art Nelson. In 1995 Geraldine Gunn was given a new award of Honored Master Gardener for the work she had done within the program. In 1997 Eunice Vleck (since deceased) and Elsie Kear were also made Lifetime Master Gardeners. Also added are Marie Hillerman, Dodie Bernal Suhr, Tony Evola, and Marie Emerson At the request of Carol Cammack, then the current Extension agent, John Atlee undertook the task of adapting the materials from the Texas Master Gardener Manual for an Albuquerque Manual which was adopted in 1999. A second edition added much needed material to the manual which was then purchased by NMSU for a statewide manual. NMSU has updated and continues to update the materials in the State Manual. In the year 2000 Ruth Bronson put up the web site you are now viewing, at her own initiative and expense. As many as 2200 hits per day have been made on this web site during the summer months. Most people are downloading the Manual and asking questions online. Those questions are answered online by John Atlee. John also has his own web site with the Manual there also. Some of our future goals are to become a member of a National Master Gardener Organization, to form a State Organization, expand the program through distance education and the Internet. While the Program continues to evolve and as the need arises more programs are added, or deleted, it is very clear that Master Gardeners is a program for today and for tomorrow.
05/26/2004 |