Caitlen Cameron [00:34:23] How do [the club] get involved with the community?

Dozie Herbruck [00:34:36] How does a club? Well, more and more than before. We've had... Barb Shockey gave a talk, a history talk, in the Grove years ago or so—maybe it was before Covid—and invited neighbors. I think we maybe had something in the Sun Press about it. I sort of forget how that happened. But that was, you know, opening it. And we now have this adopt-a-tree program that I'm not sure everybody loves the idea, but it was my idea. [laughs]

Caitlen Cameron [00:35:16] Did you come up with that idea?

Dozie Herbruck [00:35:18] Well, we're realizing that we have a lot of trees and with a lot of trees need a lot of help. And Barb, Pat [Agatisa] can't do it all herself. And she had a small committee and I don't know, it just popped into my head one day. What if we... I think it was because this nice man and a little girl were walking through the Grove one day and looking at the trees and admiring them, and I don't know, I must have said, I don't remember how it happened, but we got them to adopt a tree.

And so we've gotten a few other outside people and we've gotten some grandchildren to help and hopefully perpetuating the idea that the Grove is there. When I joined, I didn't even know about the Grove. I think that was not a high priority in the club, which it needs to be.

Caitlen Cameron [00:36:16] So when you joined, was it more about like the luncheons and stuff?

Dozie Herbruck [00:36:23] Mhm. More about the lunch. Oh. Oh, yeah. The lunch that... It was... It was all so proper. There was there were hostesses, you know, which we still have. We call them hosts now as of last week, they're no longer hostesses because we have a male member, and you'd have three people in charge of making sure that the food is out and stuff. But one of them would be sitting at the end of the table with the silver tea service and pouring tea as you came by with your tray to pick up your tea and your water and your lunch and stuff. And we haven't seen that silver tea service out or somebody pouring for a while.

[00:39:46] But Chelsea and Max and Amber, a husband and wife, happened to be walking by, I think, and chatting with her. Pat chats with everybody You know, she knows everybody. And I would have had my head down doing my thing and I wouldn't know. But she chatted with them and she said, well, we're having a Grove clean-up next Saturday. If you'd be interested in coming, we'd love your help. And they, the three of them all came. They weren't friends. I mean, the husband, wife, they didn't know each other, but they all showed up that Saturday.

So then Pat said, you know, if you're interested in joining, we would love to have... We're going to have a meeting next week or she emailed them, we'll have a membership meeting or a meeting—we did it on our patio—to tell you a little bit more about the club. I know she said that to Amber and to Chelsea, the two women. And so I said I'd be here. Barb was here, Pat was gonna come. And we were just going to tell them the two women about it. And they showed up and Max came. And we all sort of looked at each other and said, so are you interested in joining me? And he said, yeah. Said, Well, there's nothing in our bylaws that says you can't join, but you do realize that you will be the first. You still want to join? Oh, yeah, I'd like to join. Said, well go for it. So that's how it happened. We didn't seek a man out to try to diversify this club. It just happened.

Caitlen Cameron [00:48:17] What would you say to a younger person trying to get involved with the club?

Dozie Herbruck [00:48:24] What would I say to them? Say we need you and tell them about the Grove, and a lot of people in this neighborhood know about that Grove because there are people walking over there all the time. I mean, it's a fairly important asset to the community. And we need you guys to be our voice and to be our legs and help us with that. And we need... I'm hoping to get the new members to agree to be on the program committee because I think we need new ideas in our programs. I feel like we've gotten a little stale.

Caitlen Cameron [00:49:14] My first interview with Bobbie [Farrell]. She was telling me how about beekeeping and more local greenery, things that are native plants and stuff.

Dozie Herbruck [00:49:30] Yeah, we've done several with native plants and yeah. And we're doing a lot with sustainability and the environment and that sort of thing. And maybe we've gone overboard in that area. We have two meetings coming up, one about sustainability and one about specifically about Horseshoe Lake and then Doan Brook and what's going on over there.

Caitlen Cameron [00:49:53] How do you feel about that?

Dozie Herbruck [00:49:56] Oh, I'm personally not happy at all about it. I think the lake should be there, but I think it's a losing battle. We've gotten them to agree that our little Grove is to be preserved at all costs. But I don't think we're activists. I don't see us being able to affect the outcome.