On Saturday May 3rd, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Chico will host its 25th annual Chico Garden Tour. Twenty-five years of preparing for and producing a garden party extraordinaire is no mean feat. I met with Becky Thompson last week to go over the history of the tour and the inspiration behind it. Later, Carol Sprague, an early and consistent St. John’s parishioner, Garden Tour Committee Member and tour volunteer recorded the show segment with me in the studio. Ultimately, what is made clear by both women is the deep loyalty that St. John’s parishioners have to the tour, and how much of a “parish-family” effort the tour is.

Becky Thompson has been on the Garden Tour Committee since 1985, when one of her friends brought her skill and enthusiasm into the fledgling idea. Thompson notes wryly that she has subsequently been the Garden Tour Chairperson since 1996. And while she has been in personal attendance on every tour heretofore, this year she had to choose between the tour and her son’s graduation from college. You will all be glad to know that she chose her son’s graduation, and that the other men, women and children of St. John’s will be holding down the fort without her on May 3rd.

“The tour started as a group of women who liked to garden, inviting each other over for an early summer tea party in their gardens. It evolved into a garden party for the parish and in time to the public Garden Tour that we know today. Each year we get between 850 – 1000 ticket holders. It’s amazing - and requires the entire parish of St. John’s to come together and work very hard.” Thompson goes on to laughingly tell me that when the church motto reads: to pray and work together, they are not exaggerating. All of the St. John’s youth groups are involved in the effort, often earning a portion of the tour proceeds to go toward their own endeavors, such as charitable trips to other areas of the world. And by the day of the tour each year - there is hardly a parishioner who has not helped in some way.

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