Name  ________________________________

Address_______________________________

Town   ______________Zip_______________

Phone  _____________­­_Email_____________

_______ Friend at $65

_______ Supporter at $100 (1 Dinner)

_______ Patron at $200 (2 Dinners)

_______ Total

Seated with ______________________________

Please reply by November 27^th

Make checks payable to:

The Friends of Elizabeth Park

PO Box 370361

West Hartford, CT 06137

September 7 dawned cloudy and rainy.  It stayed cloudy and rainy all day, but that did not stop the enthusiastic volunteers from Aetna Insurance Company from spending the day in the park weeding, deadheading and beautifying the gardens of Elizabeth Park.  As part of the United Way’s “Day of Caring” employees of Aetna Insurance signed up months ago to volunteer in the park.  It’s always more fun to be in the park on a beautiful day but nothing could keep these intrepid volunteers from honoring their commitment.  They worked in the Rose Garden weeding and dead heading, at Sunrise Overlook weeding and then throughout the park to make this park a place of beauty.  Their hard work is much appreciated.

Thank you Aetna volunteers!

Ernest & Young

Employees from national accounting firm, Ernest and Young spent the better part of Friday, October 7 volunteering in Elizabeth Park.  These committed and wonderful volunteers worked on Sunrise Overlook, in the Rose Garden and in the perennial garden doing all manner of garden duties.  For example, our tree peonies are much happier now that they are not covered in weeds!  Along with all their hard work, they also donated garden tools and all the other much needed items on our Friends of Elizabeth Park Wish List.  Ernest & Young, thank you for all your help

Whether you volunteer with a corporation or just come on a Saturday morning to help keep up the Rose Garden, I want to send a heartfelt thanks to you.  In our next newsletter I will list all those who came to help this year but for now know that your hard work is appreciated by all who visit this park.  As many of you have told me this year, Elizabeth Park has never looked better.  That’s because of all of the folks like you who care about the park and volunteer here to make it a beautiful place.

~ Super Saturday ~

Join us on November 19

to Close the Rose Garden

9 am -12 pm

Also in the garden this season,

Cigna Volunteers (below)

Attorney General and Diana Jepsen Host
Reception to Support the Friends of Elizabeth Park

The West Hartford home that George and Diana Jepsen purchased earlier this year has a storied connection to nearby Elizabeth Park, which the Jepsens have recognized by commissioning a mural of the park by Connecticut artist and designer Kathy Godiksen. The multi-panel mural,

designed and painted by Ms. Godiksen on the family room wall, captures all aspects of Elizabeth Park, from the formal rose garden and gazebo,

to the peacefulness of the pond and stone bridge, to the natural landscape of the western loop.

Elizabeth Park Rose Garden Bed & Arch Dedications

The gift gives back in June when the arches are in full spectacular bloom. Many of the Excelsa, Crimson Rambler, Dorothy Perkins and White Dorothy roses on the arches are original to when the Rose Garden was established in 1904.

3 Years $400

6 Years $750

Elizabeth Park Rose Arch Dedications

1 year $125

You may also make your donation online at

http://www.elizabethpark.org/support.htm

Photos: Earle Stone

ROSE BED / ROSE ARCH DEDICATION FORM

Name  _________________________________________

Address  _______________________________________

City/Zip  _______________________________________

Memorial plaque included. (circle one)

Dedicated to             In honor of    In memory of           Gift to

Name:                                                                       

Amount of Donation  $                              

Please make checks payable to:

Friends of Elizabeth Park & mail to:

Friends of Elizabeth Park

PO Box 370361

West Hartford CT 06137-0361

Stopping to Watch the Geese

The geese walk in the wet grass,

place each foot carefully, and with grace.

They move with deliberation,

like a class of pregnant ballerinas

on a poorly lit stage. Each step matters;

each step a demonstration of unlikely

balance. Toe-shoed acrobatics

are no more marvelous than this subtle

collaboration of torpedo body

and bone-thin legs. The murmuring

of the geese provides no hint

of the coming clatter, the horn solos

to herald their skyward congregation.

In their scuffling for food, no notion

of the efficiency of their flying

V-formation, or the perfect generosity

with which they will share

the burden of slicing through the air,

while back on stage, the ballet dancers

bear the weight of their female partners,

and can only wonder what it is like

to be the one suspended, the one in flight.