You never know what will result when the phone rings at the Community Foundation of Elkhart County.

Marlyn “Marly” Rydson had an idea for a way to honor the woman he loved in a place he loved, and picked up the phone one day in early 2021.

Pete McCown, president of the Community Foundation, warmly greeted Marly and learned he wanted to honor Laura, his wife of 59 years, with a donation for a new visitors center at Wellfield Botanic Gardens.

Marly encouraged the Community Foundation to also make a donation and then Wellfield’s board and staff could raise more money to construct the building.

Pete was soon on a call with Joel Duthie, Wellfield’s board chairman, and Eric Garton, the Robert and Peggy Weed Executive Director of the garden. He told them what Marly wanted to do and said, “This gives you a wonderful problem.”

The challenge was that the master plan for the garden didn’t call for a visitors center at this point. An outdoor pavilion was the next priority in the plan.

As a member of the Elkhart Rotary Club, Marly had been involved in the botanic gardens’ creation. Construction began in 2006 on the 36-acre site, half of which is covered by water. Since the 1800s, the site’s 13 wells have provided much of Elkhart’s drinking water. Ponds became water features. As dirt moved, gardens emerged. Now Wellfield has more than 20 different features and spaces with just a few left to be constructed. More than 75,000 people visit the living museum each year, with more than 25,000 people alone coming through to see the holiday lights.

Eric Garton says, “The advice we’ve been given from the very beginning is don’t forget you’re a garden. Our motto is ‘world-class and homegrown.’”

Eric Garton, the Robert and Peggy Weed Executive Director, is guiding Wellfield Botanic Gardens as it grows and evolves. (Photos by Bryan Chris)

Wellfield’s growth followed the master plan created in the early 2000s. Replacing the cottage at the front of the gardens with a visitors center was estimated to cost up to $6 million for an organization with an annual budget of just over $1 million.

Then Marly called.

“Someone told us we’d be fools if we didn’t do this,” says Eric Amt, the first Wellfield executive director and an ongoing volunteer and ambassador.

Two days later, Marly gave $2 million to the project he initiated.

At the next meeting of the Community Foundation’s board, it agreed to give $2 million to the project.

With strong support from Wellfield’s board of directors, Eric Garton started fundraising. Because of the garden’s agreement with the city of Elkhart, construction could not begin until the entire amount had been raised. Like the flowers sprouting in the garden, the project grew to include a 12,000-square-foot visitors center that hovers over and overlooks the main pond. It will include event spaces, a cafe, and tributes to the Rydsons and David Gundlach, whose donation to the Community Foundation made the $2 million gift possible.

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A pavilion is needed for concerts, weddings and other events. Constructing a space for more than 500 people as part of the visitors center project makes sense and is good stewardship, says Joel Duthie, who remains on the board. The pavilion will have space for more than 500 guests. Parking expansion, relocation of the cottage, and the endowment to help pay ongoing expenses bring the project total to $16.5 million.

Architectural renderings of the new visitors center and outdoor pavilion show how the new structures will transform Wellfield Botanic Gardens. (Renderings by Arkos Design)

Vendors who have worked on the garden have been generous over the years. Hundreds of volunteers give time. Donors have given, often not even asking for recognition. Would this be different?

Not at all. Large donations rolled in during the quiet phase of a capital campaign. One donor told Joel, “We love the gardens. We love Elkhart. We love giving back to the community.”

The South Bend – Elkhart Regional Development Authority gave $1.3 million toward the project from Indiana’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative.

Site preparation started this summer and DJ Construction is expected to be complete with its work in late 2024 or early 2025.

Marly is thrilled. Years ago, he helped install the electrical wiring for a new bathroom at the garden to replace thousands of feet of extension cords for events. It was the first building constructed at Wellfield. Now another will bear his and Laura’s name.

Laura had been a founding board member of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County, which was called the Elkhart County Community Foundation when it was founded in 1989. For those first ten years or so, she volunteered as a secretary and office manager. As Marly tells it, “She was the chief cook and I was the bottle washer.” The couple had always been generous with both time and money for community causes. Marly would go with her to Nappanee to help produce and print the foundation’s annual reports, he says.

Marly’s gift is foundational for how Wellfield Botanic Gardens will grow and how visitors will enter and experience it. “At the end of the day, we wanted to make sure our visitors are getting out in the spaces and this is a way to facilitate that,” says Joel.

When rain falls, outdoor weddings can move indoors rather than under a tent, saving thousands of dollars annually. Additional events can be planned. Revenue is expected to grow.

Communities need beautiful spaces. Wellfield Botanic Gardens’ beauty becomes part of so many lives.

“I love everything that it means to our community,” says Joel. “It’s much more than gardens. It’s every sort of lifecycle of our community here in the gardens — from bringing kids out to the Children’s Garden, to people getting married, to having memorial services here. The full journey of one’s life is encapsulated here in the gardens.”

Joel Duthie (right) and Eric Amt explain how the board, staff and volunteers are working together to grow Wellfield and create natural spaces for visitors.