Growing Compassion: When Community Care Takes Root

Sometimes, caring for a community looks like a hospice bed, a listening ear, or a hand held during a difficult moment. And sometimes, it looks like a garden.

For the second year, the Southport Horticultural Society opened the gates to some of the most beautiful gardens in Saugeen Shores through its Tour of Gardens, bringing neighbours, garden lovers, and curious visitors together for a day of beauty, inspiration, and connection. And once again, the community showed just how generously it was willing to grow.

This year’s Tour of Gardens raised more than $6,000 for Huron Shores Hospice, building on the Society’s inaugural fundraiser in 2025, which raised over $5,000 for hospice care.

We are deeply grateful to the Southport Horticultural Society, the garden hosts, volunteers, sponsors, and everyone who purchased a ticket and spent a summer day wandering through these special spaces. What began as a new community fundraiser has already become something we look forward to continuing.

At first glance, gardens and end-of-life care might seem like two very different worlds. One is about planting, growing and tending. The other is about accompanying people and families through some of life's most tender moments.

But at their roots, they share quite a lot. Both ask us to slow down. Both remind us that care takes time. Both create spaces where people can gather, reflect, connect and simply be. And both recognize that wellbeing is something we build together.

Growing a wider circle of care

This year, that connection felt especially visible at Huron Shores Hospice.

In July, Huron Shores Hospice opened its Wings of Remembrance Memorial Pollinator Garden, creating a living space dedicated to memory, meaning and renewal. The garden is part of the Butterflyway Project and offers another way for our community to connect with nature while remembering those we have lost.

Then, in August, our community gathered for the Wings of Remembrance Community Butterfly Release, where butterflies were released in honour of loved ones. Families, friends, neighbours and community members came together to pause, remember and celebrate lives that continue to shape us. The event was intentionally open to everyone, whether or not they had any previous connection to hospice.

These moments may look different on the surface, but they are connected by a common thread: care extends far beyond the walls of hospice. The Southport Horticultural Society’s Tour of Gardens is another beautiful example of that wider circle of care.

The bridges we build together

Community organizations each have their own areas of expertise, passions and purpose. But the most meaningful work can happen in the spaces between them.

A horticultural society creates opportunities for people to connect through gardens. A butterfly can become a symbol of someone we miss. A fundraiser can become an introduction to hospice for someone who has never walked through our doors. And a partnership can create a ripple that reaches much farther than either organization initially imagined.

That is what makes community care so powerful. It doesn't always arrive in one recognizable form. Sometimes it grows quietly, through volunteers giving their time, gardeners opening their yards, organizations sharing their strengths, or neighbours showing up for one another.

From gardens to butterflies, the story keeps growing

To the Southport Horticultural Society: thank you for opening your gardens again, for bringing people together, and for choosing Huron Shores Hospice as the beneficiary of your generosity.

To everyone who visited a garden, bought a ticket, volunteered, hosted, donated or simply shared the event with a friend: thank you for helping compassion take root.