Community
Outreach
Individual activities
Like many SBF residents, our members participate in a variety of outside
volunteer activities. In the gardening area, this includes upkeep and
maintenance work at Volo Bog, Moraine Hills State Park,
the Chicago Botanic
Garden and the gardens of the Fremont
and Libertyville libraries. Such work not only
brings us credit, but often supplies new ideas and advance information about
activities of interest.
Club activities
Sharing
with other local garden organizations. We’ve given
pots to the Antioch Garden Club, the Gardeners of Central Lake Co., and the
local Master gardeners. Overflow plants from our sale have gone to the
Grayslake Greenery Garden Club, many of which have been planted at senior
residences and schools in Grayslake. Our established lines of communication
with other groups in the area have become an excellent forum for exchanging
ideas, probably most importantly, re: worthwhile guest speakers.
Blue Star project: Our club presented a Blue Star By-Way
Marker (an Armed Services Memorial) to Behm Homestead
Park. Markers like
these, placed by garden clubs, can be found in public areas all over the
country.
Project Update (February, 2009):
In
early 2008, we learned that a new township park, a recreational park for all
ages, was being built just east of SBF. Behm Homestead
Park is named for the
original family that homesteaded and then owned both the land that has been
developed into the park, and also the land that is now Saddlebrook Farms. We
found out that, as an affiliate of the Garden Clubs of Illinois and the
National Garden Clubs, we could be part of their Blue Star Memorial project.
This project honors all Armed Service members past, present and future, with
bronzed markers in landscaped public areas. Because of the shared history of
SBF’s land and the park land as well as the many veterans and veteran
families that are and always have been part of Saddlebrook Farms, we thought it
would be especially fitting for us to donate a Blue Star Memorial marker to the
park. To the left below is a picture of our marker, which will be installed in
the park once it has officially opened. At the time of installation, there will
be a dedication ceremony, and all Saddlebrook armed service members and their
families, along with other persons of note, will be invited. To the right below
is a picture of the certificate given to our club by the National Garden Clubs
Inc., in appreciation of our participation in the project.
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Background
information about the Behm homestead: The land was homesteaded in the late 19th
century by a family named Behm, and later divided between the original
farmer’s two sons The western portion of the land was eventually bought
in the 1970s by a private family, for use as a vacation retreat. Among other
things, they built our Lake House.
They sold the land in the early 1990s to the developers of Saddlebrook Farms.
The eastern part of the land had a stipulation that it would always remain open
land. It remained in the Behm family until Fremont township purchased it in the early
2000s.The planning and development of the new park has taken place under the
guidance of lifelong area resident and current Township Supervisor Pete
Tekampe.