9/7/2023
Voting is enabled from October 16 through October 30.
RCMG members are asked to vote for candidates running to join the 2025-2026 RCMG Board of Directors.
Beth Fritcher (2025 Vice Chair, 2026 Chair)
Kristina Hughes (2025-26 Treasurer)
Laurel Watt (2025-26 Secretary)
Sue Mason (2025-26 Education Co-chair)
Susie DeShon (2025-26 New Member Co-chair)
Nanette Boudreau (2025-26 Marketing and Communication Co-chair)
A ballot will be sent to all active and certified volunteers (including interns who have completed the Core Course and have both completed and entered 50 volunteer hours) beginning on October 16. All votes must be in by midnight October 30. To certify the new board members, a quorum of 30% (number of responses from voting members) is required.
2025-2026 Candidates
Beth Fritcher
Candidate for: 2025 Vice Chair, 2026 Chair
Joined RCMG: 2021
About this Candidate
My passion for gardening started when I was young - helping my grandfather harvest vegetables and my mother, aunts and grandmother freeze and can the produce. Over the years I have also developed a passion for natives and pollinator plants and have continued to remove grass from my yard to make room for more plants. Ha!
I have a passion for addressing food security and love co-leading the Gardens for Good program which is a free Farmer’s Market for low-income St. Paul residents where hugs, recipes and free food they make from our donated produce outweighs all my efforts to grow them more produce. Looking to the future, I would like to figure out more ways to address food security issues and also partner with the other program leads to determine how to expand and improve our education and outreach in Ramsey County.
Kristina Hughes
Candidate for: 2025-26 Treasurer
Joined RCMG: 2023
About this Candidate
Hello! My name is Kristina Hughes & I am seeking your election for Treasurer of the RCMG Board of Directors for 2025-2026. I’ve always loved playing in the dirt, starting with helping my Grandpa in his massive garden all throughout my childhood & spending a big part of every summer helping my Uncle on his farm in SE Minnesota. In adulthood, I had container & window gardens & had a plot at Eleanor Graham Community Garden for many years before moving to Colorado for a job. While in Colorado, I farmed hemp & grew cannabis on a friend's acreage that I partly own & I lived near the Denver Botanic Gardens where I visited weekly and also spent many hours volunteering. Now that I am back in MN, I own a home near Loeb Lake where I have put in raised garden beds & am slowly converting my lawns & boulevard to legumes & pollinator gardens.
I started my career as a second grade teacher & then changed careers to accounting. I went back to school for my undergrad in accounting at Metro State in Saint Paul & my MBA with an accounting concentration at Regis University (Go Rangers!) in Denver, CO. I’ve worked in many different types of industries & companies of differing sizes & am currently managing two teams as an Accounting Manager for a company in Saint Paul.
I have spent the majority of my time working with the plant sale helping with cashiers & money management, inventory & data, and being the keeper of 100s of berry boxes in my loft. I have also loved dressing up as a butterfly for farmers markets to teach kids about pollinators (once a teacher, always a teacher) & working with RCCF with transplanting for their sale.
Laurel Watt
Candidate for: 2025-26 Secretary
Joined RCMG: 2020
About this Candidate
When we became homeowners over 30 years ago, we inherited a small perennial bed that I immediately was drawn to nurture. It felt a bit like someone had dropped an innocent puppy on our porch. This was the real beginning of my gardening life. It started with simply trying to identify what had already been planted there. I probably yanked out a Delphinium thinking it was a weed, so I had a lot to learn.
Over the years as our boys got older, more of the yard became garden. A close friend who shared her love of gardening with me introduced me to her other gardening friends and persuaded me to join a garden club. She and I giddily went to garden centers the way some people go bar hopping. I knew I wanted to join the Master Gardener program long before I was able to make the commitment. When I retired in early January of
2020, I had a couple of days of idleness before driving to the Arboretum for the first day of the core course. I was elated to begin learning more about horticulture, especially since it was so frustrating to find ten different answers to the same question every time I looked for information.
Despite starting the program at the beginning of a pandemic, I made many friends among the RCMG’s, and this program has become my primary retirement volunteering gig. I enjoy working the yard waste site shifts and various community information booths, but the project that has really expanded my gardening skills and knowledge has been Gardens for Good. I decided early on as a MG that I could “stay in my lane” and keep growing perennials or learn to do new things like growing tomatoes from seed. I’ve also mentored interns each of the last three years, and every year since I was an intern I have wandered a different St. Paul neighborhood to place Blooming St. Paul signs in nominated gardens. This year I was more involved with the Plant Sale, and I expect that
will continue and expand in this next year.
I am happy to serve on the Board for a program that gives me such great opportunities to learn more about gardening as well as serve the community. Even though I’ve lived in St. Paul since 1981, becoming a MG has gotten me into neighborhoods in this city that I never before visited. I feel strongly that we can do more to serve our neighbors in underserved areas of St. Paul and Ramsey County, and this doesn’t necessarily mean we have to start new projects. Many of our existing programs can use more volunteer commitment. For example, let’s nominate more gardens in St. Paul in the North End or East Side for Blooming St. Paul, or how about we fill all our shifts at the Frank and Sims Yard Waste Site?
I look forward to helping the Board with challenges like these.
Sue Mason
Candidate for: 2024-25
Representative of education committee
Joined RCMG: 2021
About this Candidate
I have been interested in plants and gardens from a very early age. My science fair project in 6th grade was growing radishes hydroponically. My grandparents and parents always had large vegetable gardens and their interest and love for those influenced me greatly. My high school graduation list of interests included pursuing an education in horticulture, but while I ended up with a different career, gardening has remained my lifelong interest and passion.
I first discovered Master Gardeners when garden touring in the St Cloud area with my Mother, 25 years ago. For many summers we enjoyed the area Master Gardeners self-driven garden tours. We visited a variety of outstanding gardens that I still remember to this day. Visiting with these successful and knowledgeable gardeners, I was encouraged to visit the Master Gardener booth at the MN State Fair to find out more and decided it would be an integral part of my retirement plan.
I completed my Master Gardener Volunteer education in 2021. I've enjoyed my volunteer experiences and have been part of the education committee for 2 years. The education committee plays a vital role in bringing a variety of current, interesting information to our membership meetings. In addition, the committee is responsible for organizing the Garden Gate Tours and most recently facilitation of the Book Club. We have a large group with a diversity of interests and a need to be relevant to our mission. The Ramsey County Master Gardener Volunteers provide a huge opportunity to continue to use our in- house skills and talents in providing hands-on programming. The committee has started to tap into this resource and given the positive feedback we have received, intends to continue to engage our members. These presentations primarily reflect the horticulture skills part of the Program's Priorities. There is some challenge in finding and developing the meeting programs to include experts to expand our Priorities that include clean water, climate responsiveness and local food. In addition, we need to continue to engage a broad range of horticulture experts that capture the diversity of interests of our membership and that help to promote attendance at our monthly member meetings.
Susie DeShon
Candidate for: 2024-25
Representative of new member committee
Joined RCMG: 2022
About this Candidate
I have my grandmother to thank for my love of gardening. She had a flower bed all around her house filled with beautiful flowers. There was a vegetable garden in her yard and a chicken coop. In her house there was a sunroom filled with houseplants, most were African Violets and a garden fresco her brother had painted on the walls. I always felt I was in a fairy world when at her house. I have tried to recreate that feeling at my house with my garden. My photo shows me in front of my kitchen garden.
During my time in the Master Gardener Program I have enjoyed the countless and varied opportunities to volunteer. I have tried to experience most but still have more to accomplish.
I am interested in the co-chair position of the New Member committee because I know it will stretch me in areas I would like to grow. There is an excitement in being involved with new interns and I hope to help them through the process as well as spread that enthusiasm.
Nanette Boudreau
Candidate for: 2024-25
Representative of marketing & communications committee
Joined RCMG: 2010
About this Candidate
I grew up in northern Minnesota helping to plant and tend a large garden that provided most of the vegetables for my family of seven. My St. Paul garden contains mostly perennials and natives, including a division of my great-grandmother’s 78-year-old peony.
I joined the Master Gardener program in 2010 and previously served on the board as the New Member chair. I have an extensive background in healthcare Communications and marketing and co-lead a team of Master Gardener volunteers to help increase RCMG visibility on social media and in the community.
I believe the rapid growth of RCMG requires increased communications within the organization and to the community to help keep MGs engaged and to develop new partnerships and opportunities to further our priorities.