ABOVE: A portion of one of the six gardens that will be available to tour during Imagine Martin’s upcoming Gardens that Inspire tour.

FAIRMONT– With a goal to inspire, Imagine Martin is gearing up to hold the first Gardens that Inspire tour on Saturday, June 21. The tour doubles as a fun event and a fundraiser for a local organization.

“There’s organizations in town that we feel are important and historic and our motto has always been, ‘inspire to create,’ and we want to help them in any way possible,” Rouse explained.

The garden tour will benefit the Chubb House, with all ticket sales going to support the historic house in Fairmont that is currently in need of a new water heater.

“The Chubb House is a tremendous asset for our community and we thought this could help and at the same time we can offer something that people will enjoy, which is a tour of gardens,” Rouse said.

He noted that there have been other garden tours in the community in the past, including the successful MOSS tour. MOSS, which stands for Many Offerings of Special Support, benefitted children with physical or learning disabilities. It went on for more than a dozen years before ending a few years ago.

The Gardens that Inspire tour will feature six unique private gardens in the Fairmont area.

“We worked with the City of Lakes Garden Club, which had some recommendations. Several of us visited the gardens and picked out six that we thought people would find and inspiring,” Rouse said.

He said that at each garden, a City of Lakes Garden Club volunteer will be present to help guide and answer any questions.

The self guided tours go from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and from 1 to 3 p.m. there will be coffee and desserts served at the Chubb House. Tickets are on sale now fir $20 at the Hub at 103 W. 1st Street or at the Red Rock Center for the Arts in Fairmont.

Rouse said they hope to make the garden tour an annual event. It is one of several other events, including the biweekly Art Mart and the pig races that took place last month that Imagine Martin has introduced.

“This is one of a series of events that we have planned over the rest of the year thanks to our event sponsors,” Rouse said. “We have other fundraising events planned that will be announced shortly.”

For more information, visit imaginemartin.com.