Gardening buffs strike a pose, again
SOUTH PARIS, MAINE -- The Maine folks who brought us the 2003 "Altogether for the Garden" nude calendar to pay the mortgage on a landmark perennial garden destined to become a parking lot are taking it all off again.
Faced with the costs of maintaining the garden property -- the only green space on a commercial strip along busy Route 117 -- and popular demand for another calendar, the nonprofit McLaughlin Foundation Garden and Horticultural Center last week unveiled its 2005 calendar of nude models gardening in "Altogether for the Garden Too."
The foundation believes it is the only coed nude calendar among those that have been done for various causes, many inspired by the Ladies of Rylstone in England who posed in the nude to raise funds for leukemia research. The film "Calendar Girls" chronicled their effort.
"That movie made people better understand what we are doing," said Nancy Hohmann of Norway, the foundation board secretary and a teacher who came up with the original calendar idea in 2003.
The 2005 calendar, still coed and featuring 12 models ranging in age from 36 to 77, was shown last week in the barn of the late Bernard McLaughlin, known as the "dean of Maine gardeners." Autographed versions, 100 in all, will be sold at twice the price.
"It was for a good cause," said Harriet Rudd, 72, of Sumner, a church organist and regular volunteer at the garden, who, as Miss November, wears only shoes as she is concealed by the melodeon she is playing in the garden. She was not sure how her appearance in the buff might go over at her church but decided its members "might find it interesting."
"I love this place and will do most anything to preserve it," said Marilyn Hammond, 65, of South Paris, a foundation board member, retired teacher, and lay minister who does weddings and funerals. As Miss March, she is on a ladder washing the barn's windows, "covered only in gooseflesh."
All the photo shoots by Maine photographer Skip Churchill were done in the garden in early morning in May, in mostly cold and rainy weather, amid attacks by hungry black flies.
Like some of the other models, Hammond had not told her grown children about being in the calendar. "I really had to think about doing this," she said. "It's not my thing. I hope my children are going to be amused."
Not all the children were. Harriet Robinson, 53, of Otisfield, an archeologist who lost 70 pounds and was happy to pose to help her beloved garden, said one of her teenaged sons threatened to leave home if she appeared in the calendar. "He hasn't left home yet," she said, "but he also hasn't seen the calendar."
Twelve of the 15 pinups from the 2003 calendar, all pillars of the community, reappear this time as a group for June.
The 2003 calendar was a huge success, raising $110,000 to help pay off the mortgage on the 3-acre garden, the adjacent century-old farmhouse, and barn. An anonymous donor then pledged $10,000 a year for five years to retire the mortgage in 2006, said Dassler, an architectural conservator. Remaining copies are still "flying off the shelves," she said, and many people were disappointed that there was no 2004 calendar.
Now, the goal is to raise funds to maintain and preserve the garden, where free educational classes for children are offered. The farmhouse has a tearoom and gift shop. "We are constantly doing the dance that most nonprofits do," Dassler said, "which is putting your toe over into the red. Right now, we need a lot of money to repair the house, restore its chimneys, and for general operating expenses."
McLaughlin created his garden in 1936 and welcomed visitors there for free. After he died in 1995 at age 97, the garden's continued existence was uncertain until the group of public-spirited citizens stepped in to raise money to purchase it for $200,000. The chief fund-raising vehicle, the nude calendar, was accepted reluctantly at first. Under the foundation's oversight, the garden has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a cultural landscape.
The reunion photograph of the 2003 pinups is more revealing and daring. While decorously covered behind gardening equipment, the models seem less inhibited.
Andrea Burns, a retired teacher from Waterford, found the new poses "even more artistic."
Marcia Pottle 68, of Oxford, a retired "computer wonk," strikes the pose for Miss April of Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring."
Michael DesPlaines, 36, the foundation's coordinator of volunteers, strikes a pose reminiscent of Norman Rockwell's "Rosie the Riveter," with a sandwich in one hand and a weed whacker in the other.
Meg and Whizzer Wheeler, 60 and 65, of Waterford, where he is a selectman, are birdwatchers for the month of May. Mr. Wheeler, a retired accounting consultant, uses crutches or a wheelchair because of childhood polio, but in the photo Mrs. Wheeler is in the wheelchair.
"I was about to say no to this," she said, "but it was my 60th birthday and I needed to do something outrageous."
Because of Mercedes Hersom of Otisfield, the Boston Area Retired United Airlines Employees Association will promote the calendar, Dassler said. Hersom, 68, Miss September, worked for 31 years at the airline's Red Carpet Room at Logan airport.
Like the 2003 models, the new ones are sure to gain recognition along with some kidding. Bette Ann Cushman of Hebron, the only clothed model in 2003, said if the enthusiasm of her 95-year-old aunt is any indication, the calendar will sell well.
"She asked me to bring it to her before she goes blind," Cushman said.
The calendar costs $16, plus $3.50 for shipping. To order by mail: The McLaughlin Foundation Calendar, PO Box 305, South Paris, ME 04281--0305. Online: www.mclaughlingarden.org. Phone: 207-928-2298.
