From the moment Arie Vanspronsen joined the Ontario Rock Garden & Hardy Plant Society in 2007, he has shared his energy, enthusiasm and knowledge for the betterment of the group.
For the past 10 years, Arie has coordinated the donation component of our Seedex, spending countless hours from September to December each year to solicit, receive, document, sort and trouble shoot over 1000 donations. He has become the de facto leader of the Seedex committee, monitoring and participating in all aspects of the Seedex. Over the past 4 years, he has admirably shouldered the additional burden of ensuring that the Seedex ran smoothly despite restrictions brought about by Covid.
Arie has been a member of our board for 8 years, first assuming positions of director and vice-chair, then then stepping up to the position of chair. He is now serving a second term as our past chair. Twice in this time, he has taken on additional responsibility to fill a board position that was prematurely vacated.
Arie is a strong advocate for the art of rock gardening and growing alpines. With his passion and outgoing personality, he has forged friendships and cemented contacts with like-minded people. His personal connections have opened doors for other ORG&HPS members to benefit from exposure to leaders in the alpine gardening community in Canada and Europe. He and his wife, Lee, welcome visitors to their award-winning garden, both on an informal basis and as part of our organized garden tours. As the garden evolves and his collections grow, he has shared his experience through presentations at our meetings and regular postings on our Facebook page.
The list of Arie’s other contributions is long! His first undertaking was to facilitate the donation, transportation and pricing of a large selection of choice perennials for our major plant sales. At most sales, there are treasures from Arie’s latest undertaking, whether it be a unique hypertufa trough, one of his beloved ginkgos, a splashy cyclamen, or a delicate wee daphne. He has recruited many members and quickly bought them into our pool of volunteers with his trademark “face-to-face” request. Arie is one of the first to arrive and last to leave meetings, lending a hand wherever needed. For each of the past 4 years, he has ensured that one or two ORG&HPS members are honoured as recipients of NARGS Chapter Service Awards. Most importantly, Arie is generous, thoughtful, eager, reliable, patient, compassionate and supportive. All are qualities that ensure the success of an organization like ours.
Post Script: Since this nomination for the Chapter Service Award was written in January, Arie has had on-going health problems. Despite this, he has continued to participate as a board member and to mentor our new Seedex co-ordinator, Lucille Yates. Arie recently tendered his resignation from the board, effective in November 2024.
Click here for the list of past ORG&HPS winners of the NARGS Chapter Services Award.
