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GARDENS CHAMPION GETS MBE EXTRACT FROM THE STAR 31ST DECEMBER, 2003 Green-fingered Susan Kohler feels blooming marvellous after being told she has harvested an MBE in the New Year honours. Dr. Kohler is the chairman of the Friends of the Botanical Gardens and received the New Year homour for services to the community in Sheffield. The 64 year old, from Millhouses, has been involved in the group wince 1984 and was one of its founder members. She said: "I'm shattered at receiving this. It's wonderful but I have to say it reflects what everybody else does. "I happen to the the Chairman but there are so mamy people who do so much wonderful work it really ought to be a collective honour." A £5 million lottery grant was recently awarded to restore the Gardens and the Friends group, along with Sheffield Botanical Gardens Trust, is now working on getting match-funding of 25 percent. Dr. Kohler, a former university lecturer in landscaping has worked entensively in the city's special schools. EXTRACT FROM THE SHEFFIELD TELEGRAPH JANUARY 2004 For the past 20 years Sue Kohler has been rolling up her sleeves to help return the Botanical Gardens to their former glory. She is one of the key volunteers who has worked tirelessly to ensure that the dream of a lottery-financed revamp becomes a reality. As the £6.69m programme enters its final phase, Sue can also take satisfaction from another reward, an MBE. But she insists; "The chief pleasure is in seeing the gardens coming out of the doldrums, especially the pavilions. They are beginning to look wonderful."Dr. Sue Kohler, aged 64, helped to launch the Friends of the Botanical Gardens in 1984 with former council recreation director Arroll Winning and curator Don Williams. She became chairman ten years later. She sees the honour as recognition of the work of FOBS and the Trust which has secured the financial package, including the lottery grant. Brought up on a smallholding in Kent, she has always been interested in horticulture. She came to the city in 1968 to work in Sheffield University's landscape department. For most of the Eighties and Nineties she opened the garden of her home in Pingle Road, Millhouses, once a year to raise money for the Northern Horticultural Society and local charities for handicapped children. But it is at the Botanical Gardens where she has made her main mark, explaining some of the finer points to the Prince of Wales last September when he was shown around the refurbished Paxton Pavilions. "He said he would like to come back to reopen the restored gardens.."
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