CHS marked it's 50th anniversary in 2025. We commemorated with two special events. The 'Golden Garden Party' held on July 12 at McLeod Park featured a BioBlitz nature walk, historical plant walk, compost demo, native plant talk, three floral design demos, floral decorated cake, refreshments and a wild flower headband workshop. Open to the public and welcoming past presidents, members and guests. Local dignitaries and membership enjoyed this festive event.
We also designed and created a unique hand forged iron park bench, created by Mark Puigmarti of 'Sparks Will Fly Forge.' He created a bench that was designed to represent our club's floral emblem Bleeding Hearts. The bench was installed on August 1, 2025 at McLeod Park beside our civic gardens and will serve the community for many years to come.

• Community work
• Flower shows
• Plant sales

Our key fundraiser are business and corporate memberships. This entitles a general membership to the club and features coloured advertising space in our printed annual yearbook. Corporate membership includes a live link of their logos to the company websites on the CHS club website 'Sponsors' page.
Horticultural themed workshops also offer the club some fundraising revenue. Our annual plant sale with donations from the membership is another important fundraiser.

CHS celebrated our 50th anniversary with a special anniversary logo for our yearbook, and both the flower and photo shows featured golden anniversary themes in the 2025 classes. On July 12, we hosted a "Golden Garden Party" featuring various activities and events for members and guests. A unique iron bench designed by Mark Puigmarti to reflect our floral emblem, the Bleeding Heart, was installed August 1 beside our civic gardens in McLeod Pk.Youth members remain a focus, we continue to offer skill-building workshops and science-based speakers.

Youth program: 'The Bigger Picture: We're All in this Together' was delivered from February to September 2025. The objective was involved pollinators and native plants. Learning how pollinators prefer specific native plants and the range they will travel thus understanding pollination travel and corridors. The program was created and delivered by Co-Chairs Mary Beerman and youth Clairia Yates. Program featured the following workshops: Feb Winter Sowing, March Botanical Drawing, April Garden design/mapping, May Building Soil/Root health, June Field trip to observe native plants in different habitats. July Bug and Plant journaling. August and September, final presentation of youth gardens. Judges reviewed youth gardens with prize money awarded to all youth members involved at the CHS Sept Meeting.
Youth classes were offered in all 5 CHS Flower Shows and 2 Photo Shows.
Youth members selected their own chair for each of their workshops - rotating the position to include all members.

Offering a fun and engaging program that features learning how to grow natives, pollinator info, soil health and workshops are key to creating an interest in the youth program. Prize money and recognition from the club help the youth work towards goals as set out by the program.
A high point winner from the youth membership is awarded and presented a 'Budding Botanist Trophy'. This annual award helps recognize and award high achievement from the youth membership.

• Approved