Who Are The Friends?
Our Mission, Board of Trustees, Executive Committee History Of The FriendsHistory Of The PropertiesFriends of Hopelands and Rye Patch
Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch, Inc., a nonprofit organization, collaborates with the City of Aiken to preserve, maintain, and develop Hopelands Gardens and Rye Patch and to raise money to help with the costs. Admission is free to Hopelands Gardens and Rye Patch. Enjoy these public gardens as Hope Goddard Iselin wished it to be: “a quiet, peaceful haven for the pleasure and refreshment of all who enter.” Visit the Rye Patch grounds and see the Historic Horses of Aiken and the Clifford S. Gerde Carriage Museum. The restored Winter Colony home Rye Patch and the Guest Cottage are civic centers that can be rented for events “of suitable dignity.”
To join the Friends, send a tax-deductible donation in any amount to the Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch, Inc., P.O. Box 2213, Aiken, SC 29802-2213, or click DONATE.
Mission
Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch, Inc., provide advice to the City of Aiken and raise funds for the preservation, improvement, and use of the properties so they can be enjoyed by Aiken’s residents and visitors consistent with the donors’ written wishes that Hopelands be a quiet, peaceful garden of excellence and that Rye Patch serves as a civic center of suitable dignity.
2023-2024 Officers of the
Friends of Hopelands and Rye Patch
President, Holly Woltz
Vice President, Chuck Foster
Treasurer, Joshua Booth
Recording Secretary, Mary Smith
Corresponding Secretary, Heather Waddell
Trustees
Terms Expire in 2024
Kena Black
* Lil Brannon-Knoblauch
* Michael Cowen
Tommie Culligan
* Chuck Foster
Cam Glenn
Steve Kisner
John Oakland
Kelly Reynolds
Allen Riddick
Jane Anne Royal
Martha Wolf
Trustees
Terms Expire in 2025
Newkirk Barnes
Catherine Bedenbaugh
Joshua Booth
Jane Crayton Davis
Reggie Ebner
Susan French
Jane Hottensen
Melencia Johnson
* James R. Kabel
* Ed Mann
* Peggy Thome
* Kathy Wise
Trustees
Terms Expire in 2026
Karen Chandor
Kathy Cunningham
Anna Dangerfield
Bob Fogle
Susan Kleinbub
Pam Kolb
Margaret Marion
Sean Poppy
Lynne Rhodes
* Mary Smith
* Heather Waddell
* Holly Woltz
Trustees by Virtue of Office
Stuart Bedenbaugh, City Manager
City of Aiken
J. David Jameson, President/CEO
Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce
Peggy Thome, President
Aiken Council of Garden Clubs
Barry Bornstein, President
Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall
of Fame and Museum