Open Gardens group hands over €12k cheque to children's cancer charity

The Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts organisation has handed over a cheque for €12,000 to children’s cancer charity A Chacun son Everest.
The money was raised by the homeowners who opened their gardens to the public and the visitors who came this year, under a scheme which was started by four British gardeners in the Creuse in 2013.
The cheque handover took place at one of France’s top gardening shows, the prestigious Journées des Plantes de Chantilly event in the Oise.
The cheque was given to a six-year-old girl who has attended one of the courses organised by the charity which helps children and women who are in remission from cancer but who need help restoring their confidence after treatment.
This year around 100 gardens in 16 departments opened for one or more days and visitors paid €5 for a one-off visit or €10 for a membership card.
The total raised this year is just under €23,000. The majority has gone to A Chacun son Everest, which has been the chosen charity from the start. The remainder - after running costs are covered - will be shared between seven other causes, most of them helping sick or handicapped children.
Organiser Mick Moat said the Open Gardens charity hopes to cover all its overheads by attracting sponsorship so it can guarantee that 100% of the money paid at the garden gate will be passed on to charitable causes in future.
Mr Moat said Open Gardens is honoured to be one of very few associations chosen to be at the three-day Journées des Plantes event which opens on October 14, and he hopes it will lead to publicity in the French media.
“At present about 30% of our gardens are French owned but we would like to get that up to 50% or over within the next three to four years. We would really like to have some coverage on French TV to get the message out to a wider audience.”
The Connexion is proud to be a partner of the scheme.
Mr Moat hopes to expand the scheme to every department in France.
Participating gardens are open for a few chosen days during the year and the organisation welcomes anyone with a garden, big or small who is prepared to open for a minimum of one day a year and says that if your garden brings pleasure to you, it will almost certainly bring pleasure to others.
To join the scheme or find out more see www.opengardens.eu
In November's issue of Connexion, we speak to the remarkable woman behind children's cancer charity A Chacun son Everest