December 29, 2020
Joan (right) during a 2004 Home Garden Tour
Joan Maynard, a former board member and tireless Garden volunteer, passed away in November 2020 following a lengthy illness.
“Joan was a one-woman wonder when she was deeply involved with the Botanical Garden,” recollects Janice Tucker, another longtime Garden supporter who recently shared several examples of her friend’s contributions to the Garden’s growth and success. “I admired her very much.”
In its early days, the Garden received a $100,000 matching grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to make improvements at the Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve – improvements that included the costly dredging of the pond, which had become choked with cattails, building trails and weeding out invasive species. Volunteer hours were counted toward the “match,” but the Garden also had to prove it had the financial wherewithal to cover project costs prior to accepting the grant. The Garden was very poor at the time, so Maynard and another board member personally guaranteed the finances. “The fact that Joan went out on a limb to guarantee the loan and her work in recruiting volunteers to work on the project is amazing,” says Tucker.
“I think my fondest memory of working with Joan was through the Children’s Holiday Craft Workshop that the Botanical Garden held from December 2001 through December 2012. It was a wonderful event, and every new member deserves to know a bit of its history.”
“September 11, 2001 will always be etched in our memories as a very sad, dark time in our country’s history. Joan, being Joan, came up with the idea that the Garden should host a free Christmastime event for children to help lift their spirits. She quickly assembled some two dozen volunteers to help her organize this activity. There would be 10 to 12 specific crafts, with each craft having a botanical element. Pairs of volunteers would buy enough supplies to make 30 crafts and would make one sample to show the finished product. Each child had to be accompanied by an adult and could complete up to three crafts.”
“The afternoon workshop was always held the first Sunday of December in the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, and I’m sure that Joan paid for the room’s use while she was the chair. The volunteers baked goodies for the kids, and two volunteers supervised the kitchen. It was such a happy afternoon.”
When Maynard decided to pursue other interests, Tucker and Jeanne Gozigian kept the workshop going for several years until health considerations prevented their continued involvement. The workshop was discontinued when no volunteers came forward to organize the event.
“Joan was smart, talented and knew how to get things done,” says Tucker. “There are lots of people with good ideas but sometimes that is as far as it goes. Joan had great ideas, knew how to turn them into reality and did not mind rolling up her sleeves to make sure things happened. She did not ask more of those who worked with her than she was willing to do herself.”
Mary Ann Walz, another longtime Garden support and friend of Maynard’s, says, “Joan would come up with a theme and would coordinate everything from decorations, to food, and recruiting volunteers to help with the preparations and the event itself. I remember the back seat of her SUV overflowing with things she would gather for an event. The events always looked very professional planned and executed. Joan was a master of making things look great with very little money.” She was an excellent cook, adds Tucker.
Maynard routinely helped with the home garden tours that were offered by the Garden for a number of years before the Museum Hill site opened. As the years went by, her involvement with the Garden waned as she became ever more committed to the Museum of International Folk Art. “And they held her in high esteem as we do,” concludes Tucker.
