AFLAC has a duck. Geico has a lizard.
Farmers has an actor and a fake university.
Nationwide has Peyton Manning. Shelter Insurance Company has them all beat. Shelter has a 5-acre botanic garden located on its Columbia, MO campus.
Opened in 1975, the garden has hosted countless concerts, weddings, school field trips, university research visits and thousands of smiles. Shelter spokesperson Jay MacLellan said the garden was the idea of Scotty Garrett, who worked at Shelter in the 1970s and had been a groundskeeper in Scotland before moving to Missouri. The company had the land available and when Garrett approached the company president with his idea, he got the go ahead, and a year later the garden was opened.
Open every day except Christmas, the garden is completely free to the public. Even the summer concert series, which typically draws 500 to 1000 people per show, is free and the garden is listed as a must-see site in many local visitor guides.
“It is absolutely a local icon,” said MacLellan. “The garden is very well-known, not just in Columbia but throughout Missouri,” he said.
The garden includes various themed areas, such as a desert landscape, and Oriental garden, a gazebo for concerts and a replica of the one-room Newcomer School where the company was founded in Brunswick, MO in 1914 when 7 local farmers gathered to form one of the state’s first farm clubs. Actually, the insurance company wasn’t started until 1946, but as it was an offshoot of the farm club, its roots do go back to that first meeting, which is forever memorialized in the garden.
Farmers needed access to reliable insurance protection at prices they could afford. The MFA Mutual Insurance Company began operations on January 1, 1946, with seven employees and a $100,000 loan from the Missouri Farmers Association. Before its 7th anniversary, MFA Mutual was the largest mutual casualty insurance company in Missouri. It was an impressive start.
Today, a stone and wrought iron fence surrounds the 5-acre garden containing more than 300 varieties of trees and shrubs and more than 15,000 annuals and perennials.
“The Shelter Gardens have become a landmark in this community serving as a backdrop for countless senior and prom pictures, along with weddings and concerts throughout the summer,” said Executive Vice President Matt Moore. “The Newcomer School House represents our humble beginnings as a company, one that we never wish to forget. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial along with a tribute to our former employees is emblematic of the type of people that have made this company great. The flowers and trees provide a beautiful and serene setting for our visitors and employees to relax and enjoy. Simply put, the Gardens are a small token of gratitude we can provide to our policyholders and community, who have helped shaped this company for almost 70 years,” Moore said.
Shelter Gardens are frequented by horticulture and forestry students from schools and universities in the Columbia area. Elementary students also visit on class trips to gather specimens for leaf collections. A representative of every variety of plant life in the gardens has botanical information listed for the species, including its scientific and common names.
Next month the Garden will host its annual Christmas tree lighting celebration, with music provided by a local middle school band and choir.
