Naples Garden Club will celebrate its 60th anniversary on Monday, November 4, 2013 with a luncheon at the Windstar Club. When 34 enthusiasts founded the club in 1953, Naples was a community of only 2000 people. The club immediately focused its efforts on raising funds to help beautify the growing community and educating members about horticulture and conservation. Over the years it has contributed more than $750,000 to landscape almost every major institution in Collier County—from the Gulfview Middle School to Fun Time Academy; from Naples Community Hospital to Habitat homes, from the von Liebig Art Center to Artis—Naples. It supported the creation of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Naples Botanical Garden, the preservation of Rookery Bay, and participated in Naplescape, a joint city-county effort to complete the planting of the medians on 41.
Today, Naples Garden Club is a nonprofit community-oriented charitable and educational organization fostering appreciation of floral design, horticulture and the environment. Its 225 members continue to produce sold-out House & Garden Tours, to mount the Naples Flower Show, the largest juried show in Southwest Florida, and to present notable speakers at its meetings and workshops. It still invests in the community by funding scholarships and community projects and continues to make Collier County a better place to live.