Author Archives: Mary Trollinger

The first hints of spring are showing, and we couldn’t be more excited! We can’t wait to watch the flowers, vegetables, and herbs peek out of the dirt as they make their journey toward the sun.

Survivors staying at our shelter are enjoying the activity on the farm as well. Our stipend program has gotten back in full swing. Those who have chosen to participate in the farm stipend program have been getting their hands dirty preparing the earth for its harvest. And they are experiencing nature-based healing at its best.

Lisa’s Story

“The garden is a very soothing and healing place to go. Working in the garden is empowering to me. It gives me pleasure, joy, and most of all, a sense of accomplishment. Working in the garden, actually putting your hands in the soil, getting to see all of the wonderful things it produces, is a pure joy. If you give a garden love, you receive back from it. What you get back is both beauty and a harvest. It’s a win-win experience in every way.

Harvesting is nice of course, but for me, the most exciting part of gardening is watching Mother Nature at work. Starting something from a seed and watching it grow and mature is a remarkable, breathtaking journey. It is miraculous to see all of the different things it takes to make a garden grow into fruition. Soil, slugs, snails, water, sun, seeds, and love and care make a beautiful garden.”

Summer Flower CSA

Lisa and other survivors at shelter will continue working on the farm throughout the spring, summer, and fall. They will help harvest flowers, vegetables, herbs, and fruit. And as you may know, GreenHouse17 has a weekly Summer Flower CSA from June through September. If you purchase a membership, you can get wrapped or arranged cut flowers from our farm every week for 16 weeks – or less, if you prefer. For more information, visit the CSA page here.

If you have any questions about the Summer Flower CSA, please contact me using the form below. Happy spring, everyone!

Social media is a major part of many peoples’ lives, and there’s no reason that it couldn’t be part of their philanthropic life, too. Most of us see people posting about Facebook fundraisers – hosted for their birthday or other special occasions – on an almost daily basis, and for a variety of causes.

GreenHouse17 has been fortunate to be the recipient of several of these fundraisers, which are a truly easy way to donate to a cause that you care about.

Holden’s Giving Story

Holden Dillman, GreenHouse17’s Marketing and Community Engagement VISTA, hosted a Facebook fundraiser for his birthday, and he says that he loved doing it. “I have a lot of respect for Facebook for making it such an intuitive and accessible process,” he says.

Holden says he’s always felt awkward about receiving gifts for his birthday. “It stresses me out to get things I don’t use,” he says. “So I really appreciate the opportunity to host fundraisers on Facebook for special occasions.”

Holden considers his birthday fundraiser a success – the goal was $250, and close to $400 was raised. “I’m an AmeriCorps VISTA and don’t have the expendable income to make charitable donations as often as I’d like,” he says. “So this empowered me to be able to support an organization through my community.”

“It’s something that I definitely recommend others trying out,” he adds, “because it’s a way for you as an individual to connect people to projects and organizations that inspire you to do the work that you do.”

Your Giving Story

So how do you host a Facebook fundraiser? First, you click on the “fundraisers” tab on the left side of your Facebook newsfeed. Then click “raise money for a nonprofit organization.” After that, choose the nonprofit that you are interested in raising money for, and decide on the goal of how much money you’d like to raise. Then you can decide on the timeframe during which you want the fundraiser to run. Finally, choose a cover photo, fill in the details, click “create” and you are ready to start raising money for the nonprofit of your choice!

The nonprofit that you choose will receive the payment following the end of the fundraiser. Facebook charges no fees for donations made to nonprofits.

If you are interested in hosting a Facebook fundraiser and have any questions, please contact Mary Trollinger by filling out the form below.

When thinking about making charitable donations to an organization, sometimes the biggest stumbling block is actually remembering to make the gift itself. One way to make this easier is to set up a recurring gift through your debit or credit card with the organization.

Patti’s Giving Story

Patti Wente was first inspired to become a monthly donor after hearing a survivor of intimate partner abuse speak at a Tai Chi Circle of Danville fundraiser.  “Hearing her experience and how GreenHouse17 had helped her reclaim her sense of self-worth made me realize the positive impact GreenHouse17 has on the 17 counties it serves,” she says.

The Tai Chi circle had already been very active with GreenHouse17 – visiting the farm, donating gift cards and presents at the holidays, and acting as a sponsor for our annual film festival, Lunafest. Starting recurring donations helped Patti still feel connected to the Tai Chi Circle after moving to Lexington.

“Becoming a monthly donor was easy,” says Patti. “I just went online, signed up and filled out my credit card information. It’s a painless way to support a great organization and the important work it does.”

Mike’s Giving Story

Mike Ahern agrees that setting up the monthly donations was easy. “The process couldn’t be simpler, and when you see the positivity and progress being made for beneficiaries of GreenHouse17’s essential work, it makes that few dollars feel like nothing.”

Mike and his wife – who introduced him to GreenHouse17 after she discovered the organization through her job in the school system – set themselves a monthly budget for donating to charities. “We’re always looking for charities that we feel are making a difference in an area that we are both passionate about and that doesn’t get enough attention.”

“I would say that the best thing about a recurring donation is that you don’t even miss it,” he adds. “After a couple of months of donating, it just becomes another part of your life that you would never consider changing. The fact that we can make a small recurring donation to help victims feel like people again feels like the least we could do.”

Your Giving Story

Setting up a recurring donation to support survivors only takes a minute. Click on the heart donation icon at the  top of our website. Then, complete the short donor form.

You can choose your gift frequency – annually, semi-annually, quarterly, monthly or weekly – when you make your gift, and it will set up to take it out of your debit or credit card at the frequency of your choosing. 

If you have any questions about setting up a recurring donation or would prefer to get started by phone, our Development Manager, Mary Trollinger, can help. Call her directly at 859.519.1922, or send her a note using the form at the bottom of this page.

Most of us have been there: invited to a wedding, we find ourselves confronted with a registry that seems a thousand miles long. We ask ourselves, what do they really want? What do they really need? The whole process can be overwhelming. A new trend is taking shape that takes some of the worry out of wedding registry shopping: donating to a charity of the newlywed couple’s choosing.

Catherine and John

Catherine Monzingo, who as a family law attorney has worked with GreenHouse17 in the past, says she and John were getting married at a time when they were both already financially established and not in need of a lot of things. So they chose several charities, including GreenHouse17, to which they requested wedding guests donate in lieu of gifts.

Catherine explains that choosing our organization was partly a “sentimental reason,” in that “a gift to GreenHouse17 will help others rebuild their lives as a complement to us beginning ours together.” She also notes that she and John are “outdoor folks” themselves, and therefore “appreciate the benefits that the farm component of GreenHouse17 offers.”

Somewhat surprisingly, Catherine found that some of the guests seemed “incredulous” that “a gift to charity would indeed be a lovely and appreciated tribute to our marriage.” She thinks this comes from an “anticipated feeling of being ‘empty handed’ at a celebration,” and the donor not being aware that GreenHouse17 lets the couple know when a gift has been made in their honor.

She notes that she has been “delighted” to learn of the gifts made to GreenHouse17 in honor of her wedding to John.

Diana and Kent

Diana Hultgren, a chaplain who first heard about our organization through this UKNow article, says she was “deeply moved” by the story, for several reasons, and knew as soon as she read it that she wanted GreenHouse17 to be a recipient of her and new husband Kent’s wedding registry.

“The women in my family were great lovers of plants and gardening,” she explains, “and instilled that joy and solace in me from an early age.” As she is also a survivor, Diana connected with the nature-based healing of our work, saying, “Studying and working with plants, understanding their needs and their intricate connections to their environments was critical for my own hope, self-determination and healing.”

Diana and her husband Kent have been doing “alternative giving for Christmas for some years now, making donations to organizations or projects in honor of family and friends.” When they started planning their wedding, they wanted their union to give back, she says, as “connecting and investing in our local and wider community is very important to us.”

Choosing GreenHouse17 was part of doing everything “as locally and intentionally as possible, with an emphasis on sustainability, connection and community building.” Diana says that they listed several charities on their alternative wedding registry, and “people loved it.”

“The generosity of our friends and families was incredible, and so much more than we ever anticipated.”

Diana believes that the guests were “not only delighted to have a meaningful alternative to more traditional giving, they were more generous because it felt so good to celebrate that way.” She also notes that having GreenHouse17 as a beneficiary “informed a lot of people who had not heard of GreenHouse17 yet, and inspired others to choose this kind of alternative giving for their life passages and celebrations.”

Diana has continued to find different ways to give, noting our agency was on her employer’s list of charitable organizations to which she could designate a donation from each paycheck. “It was so easy to arrange,” she says. “I was thrilled to find a sustainable way to contribute through my work, which brings me joy.”

Incorporate Tribute Giving in Your Ceremony

We are so appreciative of all of the couples that have thought of us during their time of matrimonial bliss! If you are interested in making our mission a beneficiary of your wedding, please complete the short form below this story. We can share how other couples have incorporated their wedding tribute giving from invitation to the big day.