2024 Annual Report

​ River Valley Area Community Gardens 2024 Annual Report
This report was presented to the Annual Meeting of the River Valley Area Community Gardens on December 9, 2024
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The River Valley Area Community Gardens Inc. has successfully completed its 9th growing season.  The RVACG is designated as a 501c4 non-profit organization by the IRS.

2024 Highlights
There were 45 Gardeners in 79 plots compared to 38 Gardeners in 52 plots in 2023; compared to 45 gardeners in 84 garden plots in 2022 and 30 gardeners in 44 plots in 2021. 
Breaking it down by size, there were 7 gardeners renting 10 x 10 plots, 16 gardeners rented 10 x 20 plots, and 23 gardeners rented 42 of the 20 x 20 plots.  There was 1 gardener renting elevated garden beds and 2 gardeners renting the 8 2 x 8 raised beds.  It should be noted that 1 gardener tended 5 plots growing food for 10 families.
The weather with lots of rain in early summer, then dry later, affected the quantity of produce.
Our 11 Board members monitored and organized the Gardens.  The officers included President, Rose Ellen Schneider; Vice President, Doug Rouse; Secretary, Kelly Miller, and Treasurer, Melissa Hildebrandt.  Other Board members include Sarah Alt, Cal Butteris, Brad Dick, Chris Everett, Don Koller, Emily Martorano, and Marlon Tafs

Thank you
The new shed was built and has equipment in it with a few minor tasks to be completed.
We would like to thank our building crew.  Without them, the Shed would not have been completed.  They include Ray Johnson, Luke Castonquay, Damian Barta, Russ Roske, Steve Fisk, Leon Bradshaw, Ed Everett, Ben Dougherty, Dennis Tobias, Larry Laughren, Andrew Armstrong,with Gardeners Tom Hildebrandt, Melissa Hildebrant, Ryan Wiebe, Amber Westermann, Chris Everett, XinXuanLiu, Marlon Tafs, Brad Dick, Cal Butteris, Doug Rouse.  Norm Miller has installed electrical wiring.  Professional assistance was provided by Jared Ingalls, Jeremy Tobias, Billy Wipperfurth, Bindl Gravel, and Allied ReadiMix, TriCounty Building, and Compeer Financial Services.

Activities
We also received a large grant from Compeer in Dodgeville to finish financing the new shed.  Money was put into a special CD to generate interest prior to needing it for the shed.
We are in the process of vacating the gasline right of way by moving or removing our buildings and equipment into other areas of the Gardens.
Tasks force teams of gardeners and volunteers were organized to help distribute the work load of garden tasks including maintenance.
Most of the trellis fencing bordering the perennial flower beds was removed to make weeding and maintenance easier.
A successful fund raising year included 3 brat fries at Prems Meats between June and September; the Ice cream stand at the Spring Green Art Fair; and a caramel apple sale at the RV School Fair.  A composting system was developed and set up.
For help and support in a variety of ways, we want to thank Jim and Caryl Sprecher, Jerome Sprecher,  the Spring Green Art Fair Committee, Cardinal IG, Peoples Community Bank, Compeer of Dodgeville, Doerre Hardware, TriCounty Building Supply, Red Barn Catering, the Spring Green Community Church, Spring Green Community Library, WRCO radio, the Weekly Home News, Valley Sentinel, Molters Fresh Market, Oakwood Fruit Farm, Prems Meats, Wendy Crary, Vikki Stingley, and Adam Reno at the Village Office.  
 
Food Pantry
The RVACG is committed to help alleviate food scarcity in the River Valley area.  We donated the following
Spring Green Food Pantry     1346 lbs        The recorded donation was 1621.9 lbs. in 2023 and  896.9 lbs in 2022.
Meadows Assisted Living       215 lbs         The recorded donation was 216.5 lbs. in 2023. No records kept for 2022
Kiosk on site                            334 lbs         In 2023 the donation was 265 lbs.  No records kept for 2022
The total donation of produce in 2024 was 1,895 lbs.  In 2023 the total donation was 2,103.4 lbs. 
 
Youth Gardener Programs  (submitted by Mary Stellick)
We had another successful year with our Busy Bees and Junior Gardeners! We had 23 children (ages 3 – 9) from 13 families participate in our 8-week Busy Bees program. Photos of the sessions were shared on the Gardens Facebook page.
This year, we had “guest leaders” from the UW for three of the sessions, a professor (Jed Calhoun) and four grad students. They were well-received by all. We also had an optional field trip to Steadfast Acres the week after the program ended that was attended by five families. Next year a focus will be to keep the weeds down around the boxes and in the pathways.
There were six Junior Gardeners in five plots (two brothers shared a plot). They have been sent a survey asking what their biggest success was, what lessons they learned, and what we (as the Gardens and mentors) can do to help them next year.
One Busy Bee and one of the Jr. Gardeners entered their produce in the School Fair. Next year hopefully we can encourage more of the kids to do so.

 
Social Activities
There was a large turnout for our Pre-Season meeting / work day in May.   We had a “Meet our Neighbor Gardeners” picnic in June that included a garden swap and individual plot sign painting.  We had an All-Gardeners / Volunteers picnic in mid-August.  In September, we gathered to pre-register for 2025 with finger food snacks and to spend some time getting the Gardens ready for fall.

Social Media
The RVACG Facebook page continues to grow.  As of Dec 8, it had 706 followers.  81 percent are women and 19 percent are men.  207 followers up from 190 followers are from Spring Green, 33 followers are from Lone Rock.  29 followers down from 33 followers are from Madison.  20 followers are from Arena.  18 followers up from 14 followers are from Plain.  The remainder are from all over the US and beyond.  There were 33,000 posts viewed in 2024.
Between January 1 and December 8, 2024, the RVACG website had 1,462 page views compared to 1,534 page views in 2023; 848 unique visits compared to 942 unique visits in 2023.  There was an average of 1.4 page views per visit compared to 1.5 page views per visit in 2023.
 
Looking forward to 2025
Registration for new gardeners is open.   39 of the 2024 gardener families have renewed their plot registrations and 2 new gardener families have registerd for the 2025 season.  We are considering where we can add more plots with the strip in the center of the garden as the best possibility.
The odds and ends of finishing the Equipment Shed will be done.  An open house for the public will be held in the spring.
Plans are being made to revise the composting garden refuse program to make it more efficient.
Social and educational events are being discussed for the season. 
Plans are to continue getting volunteer task force work teams more organized to better help with garden maintenance and other activities.
We have a draft of a new RVACG Garden sign on Westmor St. to be finalized and installed this year.
Fund raising opportunities include several brat fries at Prems Meats, the ice cream stand at the Spring Green Art Fair, and the caramel apple sale at the RV School Fair
 
Respectfully submitted
Rose Ellen Schneider
Dec. 9, 2024