A beloved Mother’s Day tradition for many locals, Peconic Bay Medical Center’s East End Garden Festival celebrates 20 years of fundraising, flowers and festivities this year.
The festival is an annual May ritual that harkens back to a time when the medical center was still known as Central Suffolk Hospital.
Before current president and CEO Andrew Mitchell took over Central Suffolk in 2001, the hospital was in “dire financial straits,” hospital board members say. The year before the first garden festival took place in 1995, Central Suffolk’s board members were brainstorming ways to involve the community in supporting their local hospital.
Enter Joe Van de Wetering. His brother, Jack, owner of Ivy Acres in Calverton, was on the hospital board of directors at the time, and knew that Joe had helped organize a plant sale at his church.
“He told me he knew I was good at putting these propositions together,” said Van de Wetering, who was then living in Huntington. “So after a lot of thought, I came up with an idea.”
His idea — a garden festival, supported by donations from local nurseries and vineyards – wouldn’t come to fruition for another year, when he and his wife moved to Calverton and he joined his brother on Central Suffolk’s board of directors. And it was met with some doubt from the rest of the board.
“They asked me how much money we could possibly get out of this,” Van de Wetering said. “I said, ‘$100,000.’ They didn’t believe it. They thought that was way beyond what’s possible.”
So Van de Wetering set out to prove them wrong. He came up with a list of all the local nurseries and vineyards —“There were very few vineyards at the time,” he added — and went door-to-door, convincing them to donate plants and participate.
“Thankfully, they didn’t take much convincing,” he said. “The hospital was in desperate need of upgrades. It was for a good cause.”
Twelve nurseries and seven local vineyards ended up participating in that first festival, along with many volunteers. It was quite a project: The plants had to be transported to the hospital, priced and then sold throughout Mother’s Day weekend, a busy time in spring.
So when that first festival brought in only $7,000 — far short of Van de Wetering’s initial estimate of $100,000 — he admits to some disappointment.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “That’s all we got?”
But as the festival continued, growing each year and drawing more people, Van de Wetering says they have met their goal of $100,000 “several times over.”
“Over the years, we have done it, we’ve collected a total of $1.3 million,” he said. “So it’s worked!”
Events like the garden festival, Van de Wetering said, are what make living on the North Fork so unique and special. “It’s not possible everywhere,” he said. “But we live in an area with many nurseries, and they are all very generous, donating their plants for the hospital. Some of them have been donating all 20 years. They’re wonderful people.”
This year, 40 local nurseries will be donating trees, bushes and plants for the festival, which will be held in three locations: Tanger Outlets in Riverhead, the Great Lawn at Westhampton Beach and Peconic Bay Medical Center’s recently opened Feil Campus, on Route 111 in Manorville. Fresh-baked pies and other baked goods from Briermere Farms will also be sold.
A raffle will feature prizes from Twin Forks Bicycles, East Moriches Hardware, Peconic Propane and Griffing Hardware.
The festival will take place Thursday through Sunday (Mother’s Day), May 7-10, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Mother’s Day, when it will close at 2 p.m.
Seniors and kids save 20 percent on May 7 and 9. And there’s a 20 percent discount for everyone on Sunday.
“It’s springtime,” Van de Wetering said. “Everybody loves flowers.”
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