For six decades a group of dedicated volunteers have spent their spare time making sure Warren looked its best.

We’re talking, of course, about the Warren Garden Club, a group that has spent years tending to city gardens in parks throughout the city and at Warren General Hospital as well. The group has disbanded as its membership numbers has decreased in recent years as members got older and were more and more unable to keep up with the club’s work.

What has happened to the Warren Garden Club isn’t uncommon. The Federated Garden Club of Pennsylvania is seeing membership in its member garden clubs decrease and, eventually, clubs close throughout the state. It’s a changing of the guard that is common and, at the same time, makes one feel wistful for the halcyon days gone by when service organizations like the Warren Garden Club were as prevalent as TikTok creators.

The Warren Garden Club was born out of members’ love of gardening, but it also had roots in the idea of civic beautification and pride. Members took great pride in the city’s gardens so that Warren residents and visitors had a downtown of which they could be proud – and they did that job well for decades.

The good news is that for a while, some Warren Garden Club members want to continue working in downtown gardens even though the Warren Garden Club is no more. The light of civic pride – and a love of having their hands in the soil – isn’t dimming for club members even though there aren’t enough members to keep an official club going anymore. It’s unfortunate to see the Warren Garden Club disband due to the period of our city’s history that it represents. At least, for a while anyway, we still get to smell the figurative roses for a while longer.

Thumbs up to those members who continue setting such a fine example of civic engagement – and thanks for continuing to bring color to downtown.