Garvan Gardens Receives $500,000 Matching Gift From Bob Evans Estate

Sunny Evans of Hot Springs and her late husband, Bob, committed $500,000 of a previous estate gift to create matching funds for a new treehouse in Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs. The treehouse, which will be part of the Evans Children’s Adventure Garden, will cost approximately $1 million to construct and is being designed by Modus Studio in Fayetteville.

The Gardens serve as the botanical garden for the University of Arkansas.

“The Evans estate gift will have an immediate financial impact on the Gardens, as well as an additional impact into perpetuity,” said Bob Bledsoe, executive director of Garvan Gardens. “Our gardens, and particularly the Evans Children’s Adventure Garden that Bob loved so dearly, will be transformed with their gift. As a friend of Bob Evans, it makes me proud that his legacy at Garvan Woodland Gardens is one we not only honor today, but it is also one that will be remembered for generations.”

Bob Evans served as a member of the university’s Campaign for the Twenty-First Century Steering Committee and as a member of the campaign’s Leadership and Principal Gifts Committee. He was a member of the university’s Board of Advisors and the Garvan Woodland Gardens Advisory Council prior to his death in November 2011.

Sunny Evans said, “Bob’s favorite quote was one he attributed to Winston Churchill, and he carried it with him always in his pocket. He strongly believed that with what you get you make a living, and with what you give, you make a life. Bob was a very giving person.”

In spring 2011, the Evanses were recognized as Chancellor’s Medal recipients for their extraordinary philanthropy.