Never doubt…!

Laura Brainin-Rodriguez, ELT 2023-2025

Our UC Master Gardeners exemplify one of my favorite quotes from Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Our December 9, 2024, UC Master Gardener Recognition Dinner marked my second year as a member of the Executive Leadership Team. It was also the second time Anne Sutherland and I collaborated on a PowerPoint presentation to showcase our volunteers and their incredible work, with input from various projects. A PDF version of this presentation is available on Collaborative Tools under Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at this link.

This year’s event, centered on the theme “Seeding Change to Grow Together,” celebrated the outstanding contributions of the UC Master Gardener Volunteers of Contra Costa and allowed us to reflect on our amazing community of dedicated, inspiring, and creative UC Master Gardeners.

The event, attended by a record 173 UC Master Gardeners, their guests, Community Partners, and UCCE staff, highlighted the incredible community of volunteers that makes up the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa.

Our Hospitality Committee and the Volunteer Support Project coordinated everything, from name badges, place cards for Special Guests, decorations, appetizers, beverages, and libation stations, followed by tables laden with main dishes, salads, sides, and desserts prepared by our skilled and creative UC Master Gardeners. Kudos to Cynthia Casey and Susan Domanico, Hospitality co-chairs, and their team, with guidance from Virginia Saifer and Muriel Wilson, for all their hard work. We extend our heartfelt appreciation to the Hospitality Team. A list of team members can be found at the end of this article.

Terri Takusagawa provided name tags and worked with Reception volunteers to welcome and register attendees. Henry Shaw, our Badge Manager, compiled the information on volunteer hours, identified people who had reached a recognition milestone, submitted the orders for new pins and badges, printed certificates and letters of appreciation for Gold and Platinum badge recipients, and arranged for mailing these items to UC Master Gardeners who were unable to join us on December 9, 2024. Diana Garcia-Colmenarez, our Program’s Administrative Assistant, placed the orders and handled the mailing at the Post Office.

Marion Rule did a great job coordinating the logo wear sales. Thank you also to the always-helpful Greg Doyle, who managed our slide presentations.

The Executive Leadership Team planned and delivered the Program, while I had the pleasure of drafting the Milestones PowerPoint. Our goal was to foster conviviality, conversation, and connection among our UC Master Gardeners and their families, who also play a vital role in supporting our Program. Together, we celebrate the time and effort our UC Master Gardeners dedicate to the Program, UC Cooperative Extension and Community Partners.

We were honored to be joined by Andrew Miller, the Area Director for UCCE in Alameda and Contra Costa County, and UCCE staff we work with directly, including Santos Lopez, the EFNEP Nutrition Education Advisor; Eli Figueroa, the CalFresh Healthy Living Program Director; Sheree Nuxoll, the Office Manager; and Diana Garcia Colmenarez, the CoCoMG Administrative Assistant extraordinaire!

Also in attendance were some of our Community Partners, including Kristin Bowman, EBMUD Water Conservation Representative; Matt Dwinell, along with his parents Dereck and Nora Lynn Dwinell, who designed and gathered a team to build the Storage and Water capture shed at the Water Conservation Garden for his Eagle Scout project; Joan Morris, Honorary UC Master Gardener, now retired columnist for the Bay Area News Group; Lia Munoz Bristol, Deputy Chief of Staff for Supervisor Ken Carlson, CC District IV; Sandra Scherer, Executive Director and Lexi Stanley, Community Engagement Coordinator of the Monument Crisis Center and Matt Slattengren, Agriculture Commissioner of the Contra Costa County Department of Agriculture.

The UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa serves our community in various ways: where they shop (Farmers Markets and Great Tomato Plant Sale), gain gardening education (Our Garden, Great Tomato Plant Sale, Speakers Bureau webinars, Library talks, and our newsletters, blogs, and YouTube channel) and enjoy recreation (Events and Fairs).

I hope you’ll take the time to learn about and reflect on the difference we’ve made in the lives of so many as we promote the mission of the UC Master Gardener Program.

Below is information about our 19 projects and a summary of their accomplishments this year, listed alphabetically by project name.

Ask a Master Gardener — AAMG – Leads Bill Miller, Greg Doyle, and Laura Brainin-Rodriguez. They table at 12 Farmers Markets every month between March and October and 28 times at Our Garden in Walnut Creek, for a total of 134 public events reaching more than 7,100 people — 28% of CoCoMG participated in AAMG!

Communications — Lead — Lori Palmquist. This amazing group of volunteers brings the public the CoCoMG blog, News to Grow By newsletter, Constant Contact 3-blasts, the UC Master Gardener website, and the YouTube Channel with 61 videos to date with tens of thousands of views, in addition to Facebook, Instagram and Nextdoor. It also brings our UC Master Gardeners The Latest Dirt newsletter, Constant Contact e-blasts, CoCoMG Hub on our website, Video production and the Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Newsletter.

Community Gardens — Leads — MEB Phillips, Anna Wendorf and Karen Maggio (emeritus). This program provides gardening education and supports food production, pollinator habitat and sustainable landscaping in 15 community gardens, serving residential facilities, recovery centers, the VA in Martinez and gardens at Los Medanos Community Health District and Cal State East Bay.

 

 

Continuing Education — Lead — Terri Takusagawa. This program serves all CoCoMGs. It helps ensure we stay current in our gardening education skills and can deliver the highest-quality education in the community. In 2024, volunteers provided three workshops at Our Garden in Walnut Creek: a Lunchbox Webinar, a Diagnostic Workshop, and training on Ask a Master Gardener skills.

Firewise Gardening Project — Leads — Marilyn Saarni and Steve Dazinger. This project develops demonstration gardens to promote firewise gardening practices to save lives and properties. Their focus includes wildfire preparedness, sustainable gardening, water-wise practices, pruning to mitigate risk, benefit ecosystems and support plant health.

General Equipment and Materials — GEM — Leads — May Coleman and Stanley Goldman. This group supports and supplies all projects with the necessary equipment to succeed. They deliver materials, repair equipment, manage computer laptops for presentations, purchase new equipment, coordinate material loans, and provide technical support.

Growing Gardeners — Lead — Ann Ramirez. This project team provides four-week vegetable gardening classes. In 2024, they offered four sessions, which enrolled 228 students. The students learned how to build and maintain healthy soil, the benefits of mulch and cover crops, composting, garden pest management, irrigation basics, when and how to water, when to plant, crop rotation and where to find accurate, evidence-based gardening information.

Help Desk — Leads — Susan Heckly and Robin Harper. This team helps gardeners with complex gardening questions. They use a wealth of resources to research and deliver accurate, evidence-based gardening education. They tackle about 1000 inquiries a year, requiring many hours of research, vetting, and drafting for each one.

Jardineros — Leads — May Coleman, Laura Brainin-Rodriguez, and Anne Sutherland (emeritus). This project works with Latino and other underserved communities, partnering with community-based organizations to promote and support home gardening. They provide these services in schools, First Five California sites, community events, and health care and recovery settings. They also support other UC Master Gardener projects with Spanish language and culture consultation.

New Volunteer Training — Leads — Dorothy Abeyta and John Fike. This team develops and delivers the New Volunteer Training curriculum. They integrate skills practices to ensure that new UC Master Gardener graduates feel equipped to participate in our projects.

Our Garden in Walnut Creek—Lead—Janet Miller. This productive demonstration and educational garden successfully undertook many projects in 2024, including building new sheds and securing the garden perimeter from rats and other rodents. They propagate, plant, cultivate, harvest, and donate over 13,000 pounds of produce for distribution at the Monument Crisis Center.

Plant Sales — Lead — Mary Jo Corby. This incredible team of 145 volunteers (50% of CoCoMGs) organized the planting, potting up and selling of edible plants to the public in Central, East and West Contra Costa County. In 2024, they raised $116,000 to support all our projects. They donated thousands of plants to over 20 community organizations, six community gardens, 15 School Gardens, seven Jardineros service locations and three CoCoMG demonstration garden sites.

Recruitment Team—Lead—Janette Drew. This team of 37 volunteers provided four in-person UC Master Gardener information sessions and evaluated the applications to become a UC Master Gardener. This year, 250 community members registered to attend the sessions; 40 people applied to the Program, and 31 were accepted into the 2025 class. They support the pipeline that helps UC Master Gardeners grow and thrive.

Richmond Low Water Demonstration Garden — Leads — Brian Kerss and Dan Lent. This demonstration garden is located at the City of Richmond Civic Center. UC Master Gardeners rehabilitated a weedy and neglected site and has maintained its beautiful shape since 2018. It is open to the public 24/7 and displays low-water-use Mediterranean, Native and Succulent plants that provide year-round interest and color.

Rivertown Garden in East County — Leads — Lisa Bramblet and Mark Thomason. This team plants and maintains edible plant beds, native plants, pollinator plants, and habitats, and it works with many community partners to promote sustainable and water-wise gardening.

School Gardens — Leads — David George, Amanda Merrill, Susan Domanico, and Pam Austin (emeritus). This team of volunteers supports gardening education in 30 schools throughout our county, serving 15,000 students. They also help with garden design, refurbishment and/or irrigation plans as needed.

Speakers Bureau — Leads — Gail Burt (Webinars 2022-mid 2024), Hedwig Van Den Broeck (while not a lead, she stepped up to supervise and report on all in-person and per-request talks), and Sierra Higgins (Per-request talks). This team provided 10 webinars in 2024 with 2691 attendees and more than 2669 online views. They also offered 29 in-person talks at Our Garden in Walnut Creek and 52 per-request talks.

Volunteer Support — Leads — Jon Dwyer and Virginia Saifer. This team manages annual reappointments, tracks volunteer milestone hours and orders and organizes pins, badges, and certificates. They also conduct exit interviews and honorary UC Master Gardener vetting. They’re also the Nominating Committee for Executive Committee officers, Recruitment, Skills and Interest Survey, Volunteer Management System (VMS) Administrators and the essential Hospitality Team that made our Recognition Dinner a success.

Water Conservation Garden— Leads — Liz Rottger and Liv Imset. This West County demonstration garden focuses on water-saving solutions for the home garden. It shows how to grow traditional vegetables using only rainwater and how to regenerate soil and native landscapes. The garden volunteers also pot and maintain the edible plants for the West County Great Tomato Plant Sale.

Here are the Hospitality Team members who participated in the December 9, 2024, Recognition event planning and/or execution:

Thank you for taking the time to learn about and honor the incredible volunteers!