Hammond Garden Club
Hosts
Joint Meeting of Area Garden Clubs
February 13, 2019
Hammond Garden Club Celebrates "President's Day"
The Hammond Garden Club hosted the area garden clubs this past week and the theme of the day was…you guessed it - President’s Day! The joint garden club’s meetings always fall in February and we try to think of something a bit different than Valentine’s Day or coming soon--- Mardi Gras.
So we gave the thought to Linda Ryan our Program Coordinator, (and Design Artiste) and she always comes up with wonderful ideas. The hall was decorated with more flags, buntings and red, white and blue than you see on the 4thof July! Even gorgeous arrangements that adorned each table which was also covered in either a red, white or blue tablecloth!
This year twelve of the members were “The Calendar Girls” reporting on the presidents that were born during the month they represented. We each had a sash depicting the month, i.e. Miss January, Miss February, etc. But not only did we have over the shoulder sashes, but we carried placards showing the president’s pictures born in that month with a head piece and shoulder decoration descriptive of something that takes place during that month, i.e. flags for July, valentine hearts for February, etc.
After telling everyone who our president’s birthdays illustrated on our placard were, we then gave some gardening tips for that month. Some were real, some funny and some came from a 1940 Sears catalog I do believe! We hope everyone enjoyed that lighter part of the observance.
In a more somber beginning we actually opened the ceremony with the color guard from the Junior ROTC of Ponchatoula High. They were dressed in those elegant uniforms looking very prim and proper, entering from the hall and stopping at center front, you could hear a pin drop as you heard the click of their heels as they came to attention with flags proudly held high as everyone softly delivered the Pledge of Allegiance. Soprano Phyllis Mire with the voice of an angel sang accompanied by Gail Bornholdt on piano, The National Anthem! You just can’t help singing along when that lovely old hymn is sung and sing they did! The color guard then lifted their flags turned and marched back into the hall.
The President Mary Thornhill then welcomed everyone introducing and asking the presidents that were sitting at the head table to have the members of their club to stand as she called their names. She then asked Mayor Panepinto to share a few words for the City of Hammond, and as he ended his speech she also asked Pastor Jeff Robinson for the invocation and blessing since next on the agenda was lunch and thanked him for the use of the wonderful facility that was loaned to us for this event.
Marilyn’s Catering came through for us once again with delicious lasagna stuffed full with ground meat and cheese then covered with extra melted cheese on top, just floating in tangy red gravy, snapped green beans loaded with bacon, (bacon and butter, can’t cook without ‘em), crunchy Caesar salad, buttered garlic bread, lightly toasted and a big scoop of sweet bread pudding, just got to have something sweet after all that good tangy stuff!
After lunch there was the parade of “The Calendar Girls” and the door prizes which were the arrangements on the tables that went to the lucky ticket holders.
After our President said our good-byes she asked everyone to stand for the last song “God Bless America” again sung by Phyllis Mire. TAPS were then played by Samuel Echols a Sophomore at Ponchatoula High. By the end of TAPS there weren’t too many dry eyes in the crowd. “Day was done” and it was sad to all of your friends leaving but it was a wonderful time until we meet again.
The Hammond Garden Club is a proud member of District VI, Louisiana Garden Club Federation, Inc. and the Deep South Garden Clubs, Inc. doing our best to unify and beautify our homes, gardens, our city and our nation every day to the best of our ability. God bless the city of Hammond and God bless America!
by Linda Broussard
she is a member of the Hammond Garden Club
The line-up of The Calendar Girls in the President's Day theme of Hammond Garden Clubs hosted Joint Meeting- January (missing from picture) Clara Houston, February-Linda Broussard, March-Linda Ross, April-Eldie Stafford, May-Phyllis diBenedetto, June-Kathleen Bohlinger, July-Leah Sadden, August-Mona Crapanzano, September-Karen Granier, October-Mary Thornhill, November-Sylvia Dileo and December-Carolyn Schwebel Todd