Participants in the Flower and Quilt Show stand in front of the stage. Left to right: Dolly Ballard, Nell Ring, Ann Paquett, Liz Sullivan, Wanda Dickinson, Jackie Kirkland (behind Wanda, to the right), Laura Coleman (directly in front of Jackie, to the right of Wanda), Rosie Leggett, Mary Philips, Martha Beggs, Rhoda Walley, Jan Ledsome, Thelma Dehart, Lura Fine, Eula Donaldson, Annette King, Peggy Rykard, Sarah Adams and Mina Bloodworth.
By Lynette Norris
Greene Publishing, Inc.
After a year of gathering and gardening and giving back to the community, the Madison Garden Club drew their club’s official year to a close, thanking all those who had worked so hard to make all their projects a success, and installing new officers for the coming year.
But there was also time for remembering one of their number, Karla Rooks, who had passed away some months earlier. Mina Bloodworth read a poem about blossoms that fall too soon, and presented a memorial plaque to Rooks’ daughter, Catherine Cassidy, who said that her mother had always loved the garden club very much.
In addition, there was a much more recent loss, that of Inda Tinney’s mother, Margaret Sullivan. Immediately after the club meeting, many members were planning to go to her funeral service, and from there, on to the graveside service at Mt. Horeb.
President Dolly Ballard presented flowering coral-pink geranium plants to thank the officers who had served with her: Vice President Marianne Green, Treasurer Joyce Primm and Secretary Laura Coleman. She also introduced the new officers for the coming year: Martha Beggs, President; Laura Coleman, Vice President; Jan Ledsome, Treasurer; Ann Paquett, Secretary; Vicki Howerton, Chaplain, all of who were officially installed with a brief ceremony Ballard, who has served two terms as President, from 2009 to 2011, has also been listed in the National Distinguished Book of Garden Club Presidents, but the biggest surprise of all was a gift of a laptop computer from the other club members in appreciation for her willingness to take on two years in a row at the helm.
At the beginning of the meeting, there were numerous pots of flowering plants adorning the steps that led up to the stage. By the time the meeting was over, they had all been handed out as thank-you gifts to the women who had worked so hard on the Club’s projects throughout the year, including those who had worked with the children at Pinetta Elementary on their vegetable garden and butterfly garden and to Jan Ledsome and Thelma Dehart, who had worked on the Elvis Sock Hop. “That was Dolly’s little baby,” said Vice President Laura Coleman.
The biggest group to receive a thank-you was the group that participated in and made the flower and quilt show last month such a success — nearly 20 women received the pretty yellow corsages as thanks for their efforts.
The last Yard of the Month Award, until September, went to Alice Hammond.
A final honor went to Mina Bloodworth, from the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs – for her work as District Three director for 2010-11. She will have a brick with her name on it placed on the garden path at FFGC headquarters in Winter Park.
It’s been a busy year, so the garden club members will take a hiatus for summer months. When they return in September, it will be with new energy and a new line-up of officers picking up the reins as they move forward into the coming year of community work and projects and sometimes, just plain fun.
