As gardeners, most of us understand the positive power of puttering around with plants. Gardening allows us to nurture, to create, to relax. It stimulates our senses and, when you add birds and bees and butterflies to your garden mix, it creates in us a respect for the world and environment around us. Gardens are the perfect natural setting to allow children to learn and grow. 

     With that in mind, we have proudly taken on the challenge of raising funds to build Lou's Greenhouse - a garden structure for the new Cygnet House, a foster care home to be built in Central Brevard County, Florida.

     Named after a baby swan, the Cygnet House will be a group home for children ages 6-14 years old that have been placed in the protective services of the Department of Children & Families, District VII in Brevard County. Their goal is to also be the first LEED certified foster care home in the United States.

     Plans for the Cygnet House include a butterfly garden and a vegetable garden where the children will learn the many benefits of working with plants and getting up close and personal with nature.

     Our goal is to raise enough funds to build Lou's Greenhouse and Garden Shed - an on-site structure to further instill the love of gardening and plants into the children of Cygnet House.

Who Is Lou?      Lou Poulos was a kind man with a big smile and a generous heart. As a local award-winning landscaper, he planted oaks (and other plants) for a living. He also planted O.A.K.s (Ordinary Acts of Kindness) with the way he lived his life. One of those Acts of Kindness was a beautiful, large oak tree (The Giving Tree) that Lou donated and planted in a local park in memory of my mother, Ruth Lay Stabler, who passed away on Labor Day.      Tragically, Lou passed away just a few short days after planting my mother's oak. As those who knew and loved both Ruth and Lou, we want to continue sowing O.A.K.s (Ordinary Acts of Kindness) by donating this greenhouse.