| Shade Systems is proud to provide the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens with its 'Sail' shades |
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Richmond, VA – October 17, 2011 – Shade Systems is proud to have provided the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden with a custom ‘Sail’ shade system to cover their Children’s Garden and provide cooling shade relief and U.V. protection. 
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia, was founded in 1984 as a community oriented, non-profit garden (www.lewisginter.org). The Garden has 81 total acres, with 35 acres under intense cultivation, 4 lakes, 13 distinct outdoor gardens including a Children’s Garden, a Conservatory and over 300,000 visitors annually. In the playful, informal setting of the Children’s Garden, visitors of all ages have up-close and personal interactions with the natural world. The 1.5 acres of the Children’s Garden feature special areas, including an International Village, Farm Garden, WaterPlay and a wheelchair-accessible Tree House. In the heart of the Children’s Garden is an Activity Area. Since the Children’s Garden opening in 2005, this Activity Area has been greatly under-utilized due to the direct sun it receives during summer months. The Shade Systems ‘Sails’ installed in the summer of 2011 have helped make the Activity Area a more popular feature in the Children’s Garden. “The Children’s Garden staff recognized the need for shade in the Activity Area,” explained Children’s Education Coordinator Kelly Riley. “The space is between two high-profile areas -- WaterPlay and Sand Play – but guests just weren’t using it. As you’d expect, they gathered where there was more shade.” The addition of the shade sail has made a tremendous difference to the Children’s Garden at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. “Guests love it!” said Riley. “We’ve been able to move some of our popular music and art programs to the Activity Area,” she explained. Since guests are more likely to gather there, the Children’s Garden staff is seeing more spontaneous activities in the space as well. The Children’s Garden serves more than 16,000 school-age children a year and the shade sail is already impacting those audiences. “It provides another shaded area for the school and day care groups,” said Riley. “The shade sail has really helped this once under-utilized area of the Garden become a high-profile space.” Shade Systems ‘Sails’ feature a signature one-point stainless steel attachment system at each canopy's connection point, eliminating the messy and confusing cables found on others’ products which need to be threaded and clamped to achieve tautness. This heavy-duty yet ingeniously simple and functional system is a lifesaver when the canopies need to be taken down in the event of hurricane or winter weather. Read why suntan lotions don't provide the sun protection we thought they didAbout Shade Systems
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