The Soroptimists of Great Bend recently celebrated the most successful garden tour fundraiser in their club history. The tour, titled “Great Gardens & Garages,” was held on Sunday, June 12th with the help of numerous individuals in the Great Bend area. “We’ve been holding the Soroptimist Garden Tour for several years,” says event coordinator Ruth Bealer. “This year, we added an extra element of fun by expanding the event to include a man cave crawl.”
In addition to the four gardens maintained by diligent homeowners in the Great Bend area, tour participants had the opportunity to view four garages that were each unique. “Each garden presented an interesting and beautiful treat for our tourists,” stated Bealer, “and the garages were each unique designs of transforming the space for entertainment and gatherings.”
The fundraiser, while light-hearted in nature, raised money for two very serious and worthwhile causes. And much to the delight of Soroptimist club members, this year’s tour raised more money than ever before. Half of the proceeds will be donated to the Kansas Wetlands Education Center for the development of a new hummingbird habitat. “We received a grant to start this new hummingbird habitat, but the Soroptimist monies will help us purchase plants that weren’t covered in the grant,” says KWEC Director Curtis Wolf. “This is a great addition to our continual plan for improving the Center and its facilities.”
The other half of the funds will be donated to Jana’s Campaign, a non-profit organization that utilizes the story of Jana Mackey’s unfortunate sexual violence-related death to reduce violence against women through public awareness and advocacy projects. “We plan to use these resources to create public awareness materials to shed light on this important, yet all too common, issue,” says campaign founder Curt Brungardt.
Soroptimist International’s mission is to improve the lives of women and girls in local communities and throughout the world. The Great Bend chapter’s two main fundraisers include the garden tour and their annual soup supper that takes place each November. The club’s resources are used to donate to local charities benefiting women, and to fund their scholarship programs. The women’s organization is always accepting new members, and anyone interested should contact the club by emailing sigreatbend@soroptimist.net.