The first, and most important, person that we will ever come into contact with is our mother. This is why one of our most important holidays is Mother’s Day. And the Victoria Conservatory of Music understands the significance of Mother’s Day: their yearly Mother’s Day Musical Garden Tour has been happening for 39 years, and the VCM isn’t about to let COVID-19 stop them. The show must go on, it’s just that this year, the tour is online.
“I don’t think there is anything more important than mothers in our lives,” says VCM CEO Jane Butler McGregor. “[Mother’s Day has] obviously been a tradition for gosh knows how many years and it’s just a wonderful way to celebrate the love that we have for all of our mothers and to celebrate the joy that they’ve brought into our lives.”
McGregor says the tour was started by very significant patrons of the Victoria Conservatory of Music, patrons who also happen to have a personal connection to the VCM.
“It was started by the daughter, and her husband, of Alix Goolden, who founded the conservatory back in 1964. So her daughter, Ann Nation, and her husband, George Nation, they started the tour 39 years ago to raise money for the Victoria Conservatory of Music, and it has since carried on every single year.”
McGregor says that the tour is a volunteer-driven event and that it’s the single largest fundraising event for the VCM. And this year, there’s even another connection to Goolden on the tour.
“We’re really thrilled this year that Alix Goolden’s grandson and his partner have their beautiful property on the tour this particular year,” she says.
For obvious reasons, the tour couldn’t be held in person this year.
“Before COVID, people that put their beautiful gardens on the garden tour, everyone in the public was allowed to go in to see those gardens in person, and then once COVID hit, obviously we weren’t able to do that anymore, so we decided this year that we would do it virtually,” says McGregor. “So, we’ve gone and filmed and videotaped seven beautiful gardens in Victoria and are presenting them online on our Victoria Conservatory of Music website from April 25 to May 16.”
It’s free to watch the videos that make up the tour—which cost $35 for a weekend pass for when it was in person—on the VCM site but McGregor says that they are asking for everyone who watches to make a donation. If they make a donation that is $35 or more, they get a special perk.
“They are able to include a tribute to their mother or somebody very special in their lives that will be posted on our VCM website,” she says, adding that every donation up to a total of $20,000 will be matched from a fund created by four donors.
Camosun College offers courses through the VCM, a fact not lost on McGregor.
“The Conservatory of Music has been in partnership with Camosun since 1974, delivering our post-secondary program. We offer a two-year diploma program in music performance,” she says. “We’ve just so loved and appreciated and have just been so encouraged by the relationship that we’ve had with Camosun and all of the brilliant students that have graduated from that program over the years.”
Mother’s Day Musical Virtual Garden Tour
Until Sunday, May 16
vcm.bc.ca/Victoria-garden-tour#virtual-garden-tours