LAKE COUNTY – At the Oct. 28 meeting of North Lake Garden Club, the members honored two outstanding citizens of Lake County with a Penny Pines certificate – retired Nice Fire Chief Gary Saylor and county Public Services Director Kim Kevin Clymire.

The Penny Pines certificate signifies that a plantation of trees, (668 seedlings), will be planted in their honor.

Saylor served as the Fire Chief of the former Nice Fire District, which is now named Northshore Fire Protection District, whose current fire chief is James Robbins.

In 1981 Saylor started his career as a volunteer fireman, and was hired as fire chief in Nice in 1992. He retired in April 2007.

His 26 years of services included keeping on top of new laws, and obtaining grants for the fire department equipment. Saylor worked on the merger of the four fire districts into Northshore Fire.

Clymire was hired in 1981 as park superintendent under the Department of Public Works. He currently is the county's Public Services director, overseeing the geothermal impact mitigation revenue, compliance project for county buildings (including construction projects at the third floor of the Lakeport Museum), courthouse storage area at the south wing, earthquake retrofit of the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum and landscape and expansion of 21 county parks.

All garden club members of California Garden Clubs Inc. and National Garden Club, Inc. honor the Penny Pines program. All garden club members join together to rebuild California forests destroyed by fire or other natural causes. The North Lake Garden Club is a member of the Mendo-Lake District, CGCI and NGC.

The Penny Pines program began in 1941. The North Lake Garden Club, has issued a total of five certificates (3,340 seedlings), since Jan. 25, 2005.

The garden clubs collect pennies, nickels, dimes and dollars to pay for planting trees. Over the years, these garden clubs have contributed more than $1 million to the Penny Pines reforestation program. Through these donations more than 27 million seedling trees have been planted renewing 88,000 acres of National Forest land in California — truly an outstanding achievement.

North Lake Garden Club welcomes donations for this worthy cause. The public is invited to send their contributions to Don Smith, Treasurer, P. O. Box 517, Nice, CA 95464-0517. Your contribution is tax-deductible and a recognition letter will be mail to each donor.

The locally based North Lake Garden Club is a member of the California Garden Club Inc., Pacific Region, the National Garden Clubs Inc., and one of six such garden clubs in the Mendo-Lake District.

The North Lake Garden club meets September through June, the fourth Tuesday of each month at Lucerne Community Church, 5870 E. Highway 20 in Lucerne. Refreshments are at 6:30 p.m., with the meeting following at 7 p.m.

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