The three women have been named the Saint Park Parks Natural Resources Volunteers of the Year. They’ll be honored at the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy’s annual Party for the Parks on June 26.
Fitzpatrick and Thomas have been friends for 60 years. Martland is Fitzpatrick’s sister-in-law and friend for 45 years.
“We have a blast,” is an often-repeated sentiment when the three talk about their adventures – inside and outside the garden.
Fitzpatrick spearheaded their downtown volunteer work. A former member of the St. Paul Garden Club, she was involved in the revitalization of Rice Park, from the planning that started in 2013 to completion in 2019.
After the work was done, Rice Park needed a little extra love.
“We wanted above normal maintenance (for the updated park), so we stepped in to help out,” Fitzpatrick says. The three did garden maintenance for Rice Park in 2021, to help establish a baseline for what was needed.
“We had a ball,” Fitzpatrick says. They worked at the park one a week, sometimes 12 hours at a time. They picked up trash, weeded the gardens, planted flowers.
“Anything that needed to be done, we did it, and did it happily,” Fitzpatrick says.
After Rice Park maintenance was turned over to a professional group, the three women flipped their volunteer work to nearby Landmark Plaza. They’ve planted annuals in the flowerbeds and even disposed of a dead squirrel.
But their work is about much more than creating beauty and laughs through muddy mishaps and rainstorms.
The trio connected with the people. They’d take photos for new U.S. citizens coming out of naturalization ceremonies at nearby RiverCentre.
When they saw an increase in younger homeless people at Landmark Plaza, Martland used her nursing and counseling background to connect people in need with resources.
And they all smile when they talk about their friend Ron, who lived at nearby Catholic Charities and loved to feed the birds at Rice Park. When people feed bread and scraps to the birds, crumbs are left behind – which can draw vermin and other unwelcome visitors, so it’s prohibited at the park.
The women thought if he placed the food on pans, he could feed them and there would be no mess left over on the plaza that would attract critters. Thomas is a “crafter extraordinaire,” and stenciled special pans with “Ron’s Bird Feeder.” He was surprised and delighted.
Grandkids often help out; and about 20 women in their late 60s to their 80s helped with last year’s planting in Landmark Plaza.
Thomas made purple gardening T-shirts for the trio, and she admits she’s known for getting the dirtiest during their work. They’re in the 60-70 age range and sometimes call their volunteer sessions “adult day care.”
Fitzpatrick, Thomas and Martland have nothing but praise for St. Paul Parks’ Tony Singerhouse, who has worked with them from the start.
And it goes both ways.
“It’s just been a joy,” says Singerhouse, lead landscaper for the city of St. Paul. He’s watched them plant, weed, spread landscape rock and shared laughs and adventures in all sorts of weather.
Singerhouse’s recently retired mother was going to join the crew this year, but the three are taking a year off. Fitzgerald is recovering from fractured vertebrae in her back last winter.
Singerhouse’s department starts all the annuals for St. Paul gardens and the blooming baskets that hang throughout the downtown. He would bring the plants to the three Landmark Plaza volunteers and they took over.
Lots of the little parks in St. Paul are maintained by neighborhood volunteers, Singerhouse says. The city has an official “adopt-a-garden” program.
“I’m just really there for questions,” he laughs, adding that the city relies on the volunteers who make St. Paul blossom.
Fitzpatrick provided a little more on each of the women who will be receiving the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy’s Natural Resources Volunteer Award.
Jan Martland
Martland volunteers at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and “has always volunteered in some capacity using her nursing skills with various organizations,” Fitzpatrick says. She also partnered with another professional in a business that services group homes. “She is a person who never says ‘no’ and is the first to offer help,” Fitzpatrick says. Martland grew up in LeSueur and has been “a St. Paulie Girl” for 50 years.
Mary Thomas
“She, too, never says ‘no’ and is the first to offer help or will find a solution,” Fitzpatrick says. Thomas is a retired Earth Science middle school teacher. “Her passions are gardening and monarch butterflies. Mary taught many young minds about the monarchs. Her back yard and kitchen were living laboratories of monarchs and their life cycle,” Fitzpatrick says. She worked for Arne Carlson when he was the State Auditor and then as Gov. Carlson’s executive assistant. Fitzpatrick says 20 years ago, she and Thomas were partners in a women’s boutique gym called Girlfriends Express Workout. Thomas was born and grew up in St. Paul and has worked at Gertens Garden Center for 18 years. She currently works there only during the busy spring planting season.
Colleen Fitzpatrick
“I was born and raised in St. Paul,” she says. “I have always been an entrepreneur, owning and operating three businesses before retiring.”
Fitzpatrick is a former member of the St. Paul Garden Club, where she co-chaired the Rice Park Revitalization committee.
“We spearheaded the revitalization in 2013 and partnered with St. Paul Parks and Recreation and Rice Park Association in 2014. In 2015, we then partnered with St. Paul Parks Conservancy as the project’s fiscal agent.
I am a member of the Rice Park Maintenance Endowment Committee and was the overseer of the park for five years. That job has now been passed to another committee member. “
Fitzpatrick is on the executive board at Minnesota Landmarks, which manages Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul.
“Through 360 Communities, I have been a Dakota County Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Court Advocate for 17 years and am honored to do so. Over the holidays I fractured four vertebrae in my back. I’m recovery from the fractures and the surgery, which sadly takes me out of my gardening mode for the season and my court advocacy.”
Party for the Parks
Fitzpatrick, Martland and Thomas will be honored at the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy’s annual Party for the Parks on from 5:30-8:30 p.m. June 26 at Como Midway Picnic Pavilion.
Party for the Parks celebrates volunteers and raises funds for neighborhood parks.
Click here for tickets and more information
Article by Kathy Berdan. Photos from Kathy Berdan and Colleen Fitzpatrick