The Toluca Lake Garden Club once again showed it’s not just about pretty flowers with its February agenda. At the February 12 meeting, the Richard Duenckel Garden Club annual scholarship was awarded to Richard Rachman, a master’s candidate in ecology and evolution at California State University, Northridge, who will apply it to study how climate change and wildfires affect climate-sensitive plants like oak trees in the Santa Monica Mountains. The $1,500 scholarship is presented each year to a science major studying botany at CSUN and is named for the late Richard Duenckel, an honorary member who served as the club’s longtime treasurer and was the husband of President Emeritus Shirley Duenckel.
The meeting had a Valentine theme, with beautiful centerpieces by Forget Me Not Florist and members wearing pink and red.
Earlier in the month, the club held its second Sunday morning Riverside Drive cleanup, organized by First Vice President Kirith Prady. Club volunteers at the February 2 event worked hard cleaning and weeding around the young trees planted at a community cleanup last October.
