To help celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ijams Nature Center, a collection of Knox County area garden clubs donated $1,000 to honor two of its members involved in Ijams’ founding. The Knox County Council of Garden Clubs, which consists of 14 clubs in the Knoxville area, donated at its August meeting.
It was the Knox County Council that purchased the original site of the nature center in 1966. At that time, Alice Ijams was president of the council, and Ruth DeFriese was president of Chapman Highway Garden Club in South Knoxville, where Ijams is located. The two women helped Ijams become a non-profit organization in 1975. Alice Ijams and her husband, Harry, were the original owners of the Ijams homestead.
“We present this check to honor KCCGC’s role in the establishment of Ijams,” said LaQuita Misner, president of KCCGC. “We also commemorate the visionary leadership of Alice Ijams and Ruth DeFriese.”
Ijams is now a 318-acre nature center with more than 620,000 visitors annually. It provides educational programs, trails and more as the most visited nature center in the U. S.
Nancy Howell, is president of the Chapman Highway Garden Club and is the spokesperson for Knox County Master Gardener.
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