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Home & Garden
Last Update Thursday, April 03, 2008
Garden
club celebrates 80 years of good growing and good friends
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TIMOTHY
BULLARD/Daily Courier
Grants Pass Garden Club President Joan Foley, left, is presented the
Oregon LIfe Award by Shirley Schmidt, director
of the Siskiyou District of the Oregon State Federation of Garden Clubs.
For more photos of the event, go to the photo galleries at
www.thedailycourier.com
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By
Barbara Baily of the Daily Courier
The Grants Pass Garden
Club joined the Oregon State Federation of Garden Clubs in 1928, and more
than 70 club members converged at the Fruitdale
Grange Wednesday to celebrate the club's 80th birthday with a gala catered
luncheon featuring a huge birthday cake.
The boisterous, upbeat crowd, many of them wearing
festive, decorated straw hats and fancy 1920s costumes, enjoyed helium
balloons, floral arrangements and souvenir lavender sachets at each table.
Many scrapbooks and other memorabilia tracing the club's history were set up
for perusal and members of the club and the community who've helped make it a
success over the years were recognized.
Vice President Liz Sanders emceed the event.
Shirley Schmidt, director of the Siskiyou District of the
Oregon State Federation of Garden Clubs, presented the Oregon State Life
Award, one of Oregon's
highest honors for garden club leaders, to the club's president Joan Foley,
who will resume her duties following a medical leave of absence. Foley, who
became president of the club in 2005, is finishing out her second two-year
term.
"Most of all, what the club means to me is
friendship and meeting people who share the love for and knowledge of
gardening," Foley says.
"She drives us," Sanders says of Foley.
Past president pins were presented to Deena Richards,
Joyce Walloch and Shirley Schmidt.
Members of the community who were honored for their
contributions to the club included Cliff Bennett, owner of Chet's Garden
Center, for giving gardening presentations and discounts to club members, and
Brady Adams, who's allowed the garden club to use the Bear Hotel to make and
sell holiday centerpieces and swags for the past two years.
Others who received appreciation were David James of
Greenleaf Industries, George Ferguson of Diamond Home Improvement, Karen
Zimmer, who arranges for the club to hold its plant sales at the Josephine
County Fairgrounds, Sandy Moore of Redwood Nursery, Ben Ruppel
and Jeremy Crouse of Southern Oregon Compost, John Ausland
of Copeland Sand and Gravel and Master Gardener Pattye
Ingram.
The Grants Pass Garden Club has 78 members, which makes
it one of the largest in the state federation.
Dig in
• WHAT: The Grants Pass Garden Club
• WHERE: Members meet at 11 a.m. on the first Wednesday
of the month at the Fruitdale Grange, 1440 Parkdale
Drive (corner of Parkdale
and Rogue River Highway).
Following a noon lunch, professional speakers give presentations on a wide
range of garden-related subjects.
The club also holds garden tours and offers workshops,
landscape evaluations for fellow members and participates in community
activities like the flower basket program and tree planting projects.
The group has two annual fundraisers: a plant sale at the
fairgrounds and members sell decorated holiday centerpieces and swags.
• ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP: $10.
• INFORMATION: Call Vice President Liz Sanders, 862-2855
Reach reporter Barbara Baily at
474-3727 or bbaily@thedailycourier.com
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