LAGC Meeting Notes July 22, 2025

Club members assembled outside prior to the meeting for a group photo taken by Bill Goff.

Vice President, Marlow Madeoy presided over this evening’s meeting instead of Nancy due to the passing of her mother. 

 

Mary Jo Benedetti addressed the group about the need for additional volunteers to help maintain the Chapel Garden. Please consider volunteering for a week in August. The sign-up sheet was circulated amongst members. Please contact Mary Jo with any questions.

 

Rosemary Highman is stepping down as the LAGC Blog Coordinator. We thank Rosemary for her many years of taking photos and managing the club’s blog.  We appreciate the excellent work she has done. Please let Nancy know if you are interested in assuming the role of blog coordinator.

 

We thank Mary Jo Clayton for hosting the LAGC annual picnic last month at her beautiful home. We had a lovely time touring her garden after a delicious potluck dinner.

 

Mary Anne Kurtz brought irises that she received from Larry Grundler to share with LAGC members.  We could choose from “Vibrations” and “Queen Dorothy” varieties.  Larry Grundler also approached Denny with an offer to sell some of his irises to LAGC for $1 per rhizome which members can pot up and sell at our annual plant sale. Members took a vote and agreed to purchase the rhizomes from Larry. A couple of members agreed to take on the project of potting up the rhizomes to bring to the plant sale.

 

Claudia talked about the September 23^rd "Honoring our Past" celebration at the McCandless/Northern Allegheny Heritage and Cultural Center. Members have to register for the event. Please look at your e-mail for more information and be sure to adhere to the deadline.

 

Claudia explained that all LAGC members are invited to enter the raffle to win a ticket to attend the Shining Star Gala 2025 at the Camelot Event Center on Saturday November 1^st where LAGC will receive the Shining Star award.  The club received 2 free seats for the event.  An anonymous donor gave 8 seats to the club to be raffled off.  Please complete a raffle ticket if you are interested.

 

The LAGC 75^th Anniversary Celebration will be held on October 28^th. Members need to sign up to attend the event which is being held at Northmont Church. The cost for members to attend is $22, which will cover some of the food costs and paper supplies. A signup sheet was circulated to sign up to help set up or bring an appetizer or dessert. Please contact Claudia if you want to sign up or have questions.

 

The refurbishment of the sign at the Chapel Garden is underway. There is no plan yet for the rededication of the garden. 

 

Marlow spoke about the November 15^th LAGC Holiday tour and luncheon. Please hold the date on your calendar. Plans are being made for the tour at Phipps Conservatory to start at 10:30 a.m. The luncheon will be held at Monte Cello’s restaurant on Babcock Blvd.  More information about the cost will be relayed in the next few months.

 

The Penn State Master Gardeners Garden in the Park takes place on July 26th, 9am–1pm, at North Park's Trial Gardens (Babcock & Ingomar Rd).

 

We were reminded that we will not meet at Northmont church in August.  We will have a tour of  Beechwood Farms.  Please watch your e-mail for details and let Mary Anne Kurtz know if you plan to attend.

 

Dues for 2026 remain at $15. Linda Brown will collect dues as cash or check in September and October. You can also mail your check to her.

 

Hostesses:  Thank you to Rose and Sue for being the hostesses for the evening. They brought delicious lemon bars, crackers and fresh fruit. The beautiful summery arrangement contained white hydrangeas, shasta daisies, rudbeckia, and coneflower. Thank you!

 Program – Lightning Bugs presented by Allegheny County Park Rangers

 

This evening the Allegheny County Park Rangers, Deaglan McManus and Ranger Zach returned to give another interesting talk to our club. Tonight, we learned about fireflies, also commonly referred to as lightning bugs. Despite their name, fireflies are neither true bugs nor flies; they are beetles. Globally, there are approximately 2,000 species of fireflies, with 170 found in the United States and 33 in Pennsylvania.

 

There are two common types of fireflies: Photinus: which is smaller, lighter in color, and glows at dusk and Photuris which is larger, darker, and typically appears after dark. The official state insect of Pennsylvania is the firefly, specifically Photuris Pennsylvanica. This designation occurred in 1974 because a 3^rd grade class campaigned to have a state insect. 

 

Fireflies have three main body parts: abdomen, head, and thorax. They possess compound eyes, six legs, and a structure known as a lantern. The lantern is the area where the chemical reaction of bioluminescence takes place. Approximately 25,000 fireflies would be needed to power a light bulb. Flash patterns vary among different species. Deaglan orchestrated a game with a few members and program guests to illustrate how fireflies find their partner by looking for another firefly with the same flash pattern.

 

Collecting and observing lightning bugs has always been a favorite activity for children.  The Rangers emphasized the importance of proper etiquette to keep the fireflies alive.  Handle them gently, avoid insecticides/bug spray on your hands when collecting, and use a large jar to contain the lightning bugs to allow an ample amount of oxygen. 

 

Although fireflies are considered to be in a vulnerable state there is an indication that their population is on the rise.  The key threats to the firefly population include artificial night lighting, habitat destruction, and the use of insecticides and herbicides. Deaglan said that to combat these threats we should use motion detection lighting in our gardens instead of leaving lights on all night, limit the use of insecticides, leave a small area of our gardens with taller grass, and don’t be too quick to clean up the leaves in the spring because it probably contains firefly grubs.

 

Our speaker mentioned that individuals interested in supporting firefly conservation can join efforts to track and monitor populations through initiatives like the Firefly Atlas. For more information, please visit www.fireflyatlas.org.  

North Park Rangers (left) Zach and Deaglan McManus

 

 

LAGC Meeting Notes – January 28, 2025

 President Nancy Madeoy welcomed members to the first LAGC meeting of 2025.

 

What’s growing in your garden?  Members agreed that we don’t have anything growing in our gardens right now. Andrea Maire mentioned that she saw snowdrops growing in the area.

 

Our new T-shirts were distributed by Helen. They look great! Members will be asked to wear their T-shirts to LAGC group events. Thank you to Helen for organizing the ordering and distribution of the T-shirts.

 

The 2025 LAGC Directory was distributed to members.  All members will receive a paper copy this year because it’s a special color edition for our 75^th anniversary.  Claudia and Andrea did a fantastic job creating this special handbook by including photos and historical information about LAGC. Great job! We appreciate your hard work to make the handbook memorable for 2025.

New logo.

 

Members were asked to please verify that your name, address and email address are correctly listed in the handbook.  Please notify Linda Brown if there are any corrections. 

 

Nancy reviewed how the text chain will be implemented in the event that we need to quickly contact all members.  Please see page 4 of the LAGC handbook to review the Text Tree.

 

Treasurer Denny reviewed the proposed budget for 2025.  Many items remain unchanged from the 2024 budget. One important change is the increase of the Fellowship Hall rental fee from $360 to $450. The 75th anniversary celebration budget will be $2,500. We held a vote and the 2025 budget was approved by members. 

 

Claudia reviewed all the activities that are planned for the 75^th anniversary which LAGC will celebrate throughout 2025. One particular event of interest discussed this evening is the planting of the trees which was arranged in partnership with Tree Pittsburgh and the Allegheny County Park Rangers.  Members were presented with 2 potential sites where we could plant the trees. The final vote concluded that members will plant the trees in the area near the horse arena in North Park.  The tree planting will occur, rain or shine, on Friday, April 11, 2025 at 3:00pm. Members are encouraged to bring their own shovels and gloves.  More details will be communicated in the coming months. Thank you to Mary Jo Clayton who spearheaded the planning of this activity.

 

Mary Jo and Lynn circulated the sign-up sheet to volunteer to weed and maintain the Chapel Garden at Passavant Hospital.  Please consider volunteering your time to help with this project. Don’t worry if you didn’t get a chance to sign-up for a week or two! The sign-up sheet will be circulated again at the next few meetings until all the slots are filled.

 

Hostesses:

Claudia brought a pretty winter centerpiece which included pine boughs, pine cones and hydrangeas. Dianne brought delicious baklava and scrumptious toffee cracker bars. Thank you for creating such a lovely table display.

 

Program --- Women in Conservation by speaker Deaglan McManus

LAGC members welcomed returning speaker, Deaglan McManus who is a Park Ranger with Allegheny County Parks with a wealth of knowledge about the history of the parks.  This evening’s program titled “Women in Conservation” conveyed the message that women have played a major role in both the creation and conservation of the parks of Allegheny County. His interesting and informative presentation focused on 4 women who had an important impact on the Allegheny County Parks, as well as environmental interests across the USA.

·      Liz Cushman Titus Putnam born in New York in 1933 was inspired by an article she read in 1953 “Let's close the national parks”. As a college student she founded the SCA which stands for Student Conservation Association.  It was modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930’s. Pittsburgh has the largest number of alumni for this conservation program. She had strong ties with park rangers and garden clubs.  Many of the Allegheny County Park rangers received training thru the SCA. Our speaker said that his first year as a park ranger he was paid through the SCA and its seasonal ranger program. 

 

·      Mary Flinn Lawrence In1969 she sold her 485 acre estate to Allegheny County and Hartwood Acres Park was built.  In 1920 she was appointed to the State Forestry Commission.  In 1927 she planted 96,000 pine trees on the Hartwood estate to prevent soil erosion. She was named the second largest tree planter that year. She was a suffragist, philanthropist and involved in politics.

 

·      Caren Glotfelty was the Executive Director of the Allegheny County Parks Foundation and had a strong partnership with county government.  Her experience in environmental planning and efforts to raise funds led her to implement projects in the Allegheny County Parks. One of her instrumental achievements was through a partnership with the Audubon Society where she was able to have over 100 chimney swift towers built and installed at nine parks. She established a 4 acre meadow in Hartwood Acres which is planted with native wildflowers and grasses.  It’s been named the Caren Glotfelty Meadow.

 

·      Rachel Carson was born in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She worked for the Fish and Wildlife Services.  She’s credited as being the mother of the modern day environmental movement. She had a great interest in the effects of DDT insecticide which caused a decline in birds and bald eagles. Her novel “Silent Springs” was published in 1962 and caused the public to take notice of the environment and rally for change.  She’s a well-known Pittsburgher and the Rachel Carson Bridge and Rachel Carson Trail have been named in her honor. She died of breast cancer at age 56.

Rachel Carson, scientist

DDT sprayed on people.

 

LAGC October 24, 2024 Meeting Notes

President Nancy Madeoy welcomed members to the last meeting of 2024.

Members were asked What’s blooming in our gardens?  Monkshead, dahlias and mums.

LAGC members agreed to once again donate $250 to the following organizations:

·      Western PA Conservancy

·      Botanic Gardens of Western PA

·      North Area Environmental Council

·      Tree Pittsburgh

The Hostess signup sheet for 2025 was circulated to fill a few openings.

Marlow Madeoy spoke about a few details regarding the holiday luncheon and tour on November 16^th.  The restaurant will accommodate dietary needs and will offer a vegetarian food option.  The club will not be organizing a carpool for the events.  As in the past, members may arrange their own carpool and use the church parking lot as a meetup location.  Directions to the Kerr Museum and Hartwood Whisper’s Pub restaurant will be sent by our Email Coordinator, Claudia.  You may also use your GPS or cell phone for directions.  Dessert for the lunch will be a variety of cookies.  A few members have volunteered to bring cookies.

Claudia gave an update about the plans for the 75^th Anniversary celebration next year.  Plans are progressing smoothly thanks to Claudia and the committee members.  Claudia showed us a sample of the table centerpiece which is a real pumpkin containing live flowers.  The base of the signpost at the Chapel Garden will be sanded and stained.  There’s some positive discussion about having a rededication of the garden.

Our hostesses created a lovely and most delicious table.  Mary Jo Clayton brought an amazing and abundant vase of dahlias from her garden.  Andrea Maire shared her delicious homemade jam along with cream cheese, crackers and grapes.  It was delicious!  Thank you.

 

Program – A New Deal for North Park by Deaglan McManus

Our speaker, Deaglan McManus, Park Ranger for Allegheny County Parks returned to give another interesting talk about the history of North Park.  He began his talk with a reminder about how fortunate we are to have North Park so close to home with its 3094 acres of land and many miles of hiking trails. 

This evening Deaglan came to talk to us about how the New Deal transformed North Park.

He explained that the New Deal is a series of programs enacted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt between 1933 and 1938 to rescue the United States from the Great Depression.

 

The first program that he talked about was the Civilian Conservation Corps or CCC.  The program which ran from June 1933 to October 1935 involved housing about 200 men in a tent camp set up above a hillside on Wildwood Road.  The workers were young, unemployed men and were given jobs to help build some of the various buildings in North Park. This program allowed the workers to earn money, skills and become literate before they left the program.

Our speaker also talked about the Public Works Program and Civil Works Admin Program which are responsible for building some of the many structures in North Park such as the swimming pool, Golf Club House, North Park Lodge, standpipe, boathouse, and gatehouse.  The workers of these programs built the latrines, shelters and even the picnic tables that are still used today.  The most amazing feat is that the workers dug out Marshall Lake. When you are in North Park look for the metal commemorative plaques that were hung to signify jobs that were made possible with federal funding from the New Deal Programs.

 

Deaglan gave a very informative talk.  His love of history and the Allegheny County Parks is apparent in his enthusiastic delivery.  We look forward to him returning to bring another interesting presentation.

For more details about how North Park was developed by programs of the New Deal, please visit the Allegheny County Parks website.

https://www.alleghenycounty.us/parks-and-events/parks/northpark/history-of-north-park

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 24, 2023 Meeting Notes

What’s blooming in your garden?  Monkshood, dahlias, witch hazel, bearded iris and asters

President Nancy thanked Mary Ann for arranging last month’s dahlia tour at the home of Amy Krut in West View.  Thanks also to Bill and Dianne for taking the beautiful photos.

Vice President, Marlow talked about the plans he is working on for this year’s holiday lunch and tour. The idea is to tour Old Economy Village in Ambridge and eat at a restaurant in the area.  PLEASE NOTE – THE DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED TO Saturday, December 2^nd.  Please watch your e-mail for details.

The 2024 LAGC Board will consist of the same board members as this year.

Evan Fingal decided not to be the Community Service Coordinator in 2024.  Lynn Betz and Mary Jo have volunteered to be co-chairs.  Claudia Hickley volunteered to assume the role of Online Communicator in place of Lynn.  Thank you to everyone for your years of service and to those stepping up to assume the vacant positions!

Treasurer Denny, spoke about the donations we give to the 4 organizations that are listed in the handbook.  Members voted and approved to give $250 to each of those organizations.  This was already in the 2023 budget.  If you have a suggestion for another worthy cause that you think we should support then, please bring your suggestion to the January 2024 meeting so that we can plan for it in the 2024 budget.  One suggestion is to donate to the Latodomi Nature Center.

Program Coordinator, Mary Ann reviewed the schedule she has planned for next year.  Here is a list of what we can look forward to:

January   ---  The North Park Rangers will talk about Winter Birds

May ---  Tour of North Park Wetlands

June 4^th --- Annual Picnic at Bill Goff’s house to see his peonies in bloom

June 25^th --- Tour of a local garden 

Please mark your calendars with the date of the 2024 LAGC plant sale: May 18^th  

Members were reminded to make notes now about what plants can be divided in the spring to pot up and bring to the plant sale.

The hostess sign up list was circulated by Jane.  Thank you to those who signed up to bring dessert or an arrangement to our meetings.

We had a variety of delicious autumn goodies from Mary Ann Kurtz:  pumpkin bars, popcorn and cookies.  Linda Brown’s beautiful end of the season arrangement of flowers and grasses complemented the table.  Thank you for sharing!

 

Mary Ann

Linda B's Halloween arrangement

Mary Ann's desserts

Final touches, Jane, Claudia, Mary Ann

 Program:  Historic Structures of North Park by Ranger Deaglan McManus

This evening’s program was very popular.  We had 12 guests!  Allegheny County Park Ranger Deaglan McManus and 2 fellow rangers came well-prepared to talk about the historical structures in North Park that we drive past and may not pay attention to.  They setup a display table with old photographs of the parks and handouts of information about programs in the Allegheny County park system and were on hand to answer questions.

Ranger Deaglan talked about many of the wood and stone structures in North Park.  Some are still in use but, have a different purpose today. Here are some of the facts that I found especially interesting.

·   **North Park is the first Allegheny County park; it was started 4 hours earlier than South Park

·     ** Police headquarters:  the policemen for North Park lived in houses specifically built for them in the park

·      **The Eisenbach barn from 1927 is still standing today; it’s used for electrical equipment

·      **In 1927 the bison and 50 deer were brought to the park from a farm in Allentown, PA.  As the animals were being transported to North Park, they paraded them thru downtown Pittsburgh for the citizens to see

·      **South Park still keeps 9 to 11 bison today and there are usually a few babies born in the spring; visitors to the park can participate in public feedings at the game preserve; look for details about dates and times on the Allegheny County Parks website

·      **An American Indian from Montana, Chief Big Beaver, and his family were brought to North Park to take care of the bison; they were given a house and a salary; the children went to Ingomar Elementary School

  **The Grotto along Kummer Road known as the Fountain of Youth was built in 1938

 **The boathouse was built before the man-made lake was created; a garage was constructed at one end of the boathouse for the police boats

**The gatehouse is one of the most photographed structures but, it was never constructed to be strong enough to be walked on by visitors

**The swimming pool was once thought to be the largest public pool ever built and holds 2 ½ million gallons of water

 

There are many more structures in North Park which have been there since the early years of the park such as the firehouse, observation tower, log cabin, schoolhouse shelter among others.  Ranger Deaglan and his colleagues continue to discover and unearth old structures throughout North Park by studying old photos and maintaining the vegetation in the park.  Please visit the following website for more information History of North Park | Allegheny County Parks.

See more online: AlleghenyCounty.US/NPhistory