Left Hand Laurel - Judy Seaborn

Turning fear into hope was a gift long-time Niwot resident Judy Seaborn drew from her experience of the Marshall fire. For her efforts to assist fire victims and her commitment to provide food to those in need, Seaborn is the recipient of the February Left Hand Laurel.

Co-owner with Curtis Jones of Botanical Interests, a large Colorado seed and garden company whose goal for the past 27 years has been "to inspire and educate the gardener in you" by supplying garden centers nationally and home gardeners with products and informatiion, Seaborn recalled recently the terror she felt the night of the Marshall fire.

Still at work on Dec. 30 in the company's massive 32,000-square-foot warehouse in Broomfield with just 14 of 52 employees – "the skeleton night shift" as she put it – Seaborn recalled looking out the window across the field separating her property from Louisville two miles away, and seeing huge black clouds of billowing smoke above the horizon heading her way.

"The sky was turning red," she recalled. "It was sunset."

Recalling that horrific night, Seaborn was sitting last week in her cozy and spacious Niwot home looking out over an acre of snow-covered gardens and the orchard in her back yard.

"I ran around the warehouse that night slamming doors shut and grabbing documents and my laptop and then I told my employees to evacuate immediately," she recalled.

They did. Everybody was safe. A few weeks later, Seaborn, who has long been involved in community and civic projects, made a decision to tell her on-line customers that for everything they purchased that week, she would donate fully 20% of her profits to the Marshall fire relief.

"We had raised $13,000 in seven days," she said, "and the entire sum was donated to Community Food Share."

"I always have tried to give back to the community," Seaborn said. "I know that sounds like a cliché. And I don't mean to be immodest, but my fear that night was nothing like what others went through."

Interested in all things local as well as global, Seaborn has been a long-time contributor to civic life in Niwot.

Working with local residents like Pat Murphy and Kathy Koehler, she helped re-establish the Niwot Garden Club. She gives members guided tours of her own extensive gardens, teaches about the importance of bees as pollinators, and works with the Niwot Historical Society as well as with local school gardens.

The mother of two grown daughters – one a new mom in Erie and the younger one still a college student in Kansas, Seaborn described how thrilled she was recently to become a first-time grandmother.

Then the conversation turned back to Community Food Share and the importance of people working together to provide the homeless and hungry with fresh, nutritious and – preferably – locally grown produce.

Having just returned last week from a seed trade show in San Diego, Seaborn noted that she had grown up in Santa Clara, Calif., and was born into a family of passionate gardeners. "...My mother and grandmother were both amazing gardeners and taught me well."

Concerning Community Food Share, which provides access to fresh, nutritious food through local partners and its on-site and mobile pantries, she said, "I appreciate the dignity this allows people."

Before donating $13,000 from her sales last week, she and her friends have been contributing to the Harvest Moon food drive. "We are always trying to get local gardeners to share their harvests with Community Food Share," Seaborn said.

The devastation of the Marshall fire has ramped up those efforts. According to Kristine Thomas, a spokeswoman for Community Food Share, the organization is "expanding services for food assistance, redistributing food from affected businesses, growing our inventory of emergency food boxes and continually assessing needs."

"We remain in close contact with disaster response teams, local schools and our hunger relief network," Thomas added.

She noted, "When Costco in Superior had to shut down [ due to the fire], we helped save a truckload of food that is now going out through our network," Last week, Community Food Share "worked with the Boulder Valley School District to identify schools with the highest need."

Seaborn suggested a "tour" of her backyard gardens covered in a foot of snow from the most recent snowstorm. As for her own garden, Seaborn is clearly looking forward to spring and the planting of seeds, then ahead to summer and the fall harvest. She pointed excitedly to the frozen orchard, to all her raised beds covered in snow and to her expansive snow-covered flower beds.

"It's always best to look forward," she said with a smile and a nod.