Hammond Garden Club ends 2019
WOW! JUST WOW! I know by now everyone has heard that the city of Hammond has won, has taken the title once again of Cleanest City! That is thirteen (13) years in a row! Never before in the history of this city have we taken this award for 13 years in a row!
Oh my goodness there are so many people to thank for making this award possible and starting at the top it’s the Mayor…Pete Panepinto, Lacy Landrum Director of Administration, Whitney Stratham, Superintendent of Parks and Streets with the city workers (all the names I can’t recall) have made this city so colorful with all the plantings of beautiful flowers and keeping the trash picked up also. The Keep Hammond Beautiful organization does a tremendous amount to help us win this award, all the volunteers that come on specific days to pick up trash on the roadsides and subdivisions, we even have help from the prisoners on those pick up days.
And lest we forget it is because of the Hammond Garden Clubs involvement in the Louisiana Garden Club Federation that we even have the ability to be in the contest! And one of the biggest contributors to this win is our scrap book which you have to have to enter. If it weren’t for our “Artiste In Residence” Phyllis Mire for her art work and Glenda Nelson that collects all the newspaper and other paper work all year long that fill the pages of that huge scrapbook there would be no award!
So this Friday, May 17 the judges will be here again, (hope they never get tired of seeing us) to present the city with that beautiful pewter platter that has hung on the wall of the Mayor’s office for the past 12 years and this Friday it will be 13 years. Thank you to everyone (hope I didn’t forget anyone) that picked up even one piece of paper this past year or planted one flower, you contributed, and we love you for it!
Speaking of winners…the HGC, or Linda Ryan and Pat Graves have again won a Blue Ribbon, First Place in Competitive and Interpretive art with flowers at the New Orleans Museum Of Art “Art In Bloom” contest again this year.
And more winners LGCF, Inc. has awarded the Hammond Garden Club an All Encompassing Horticultural Honor Roll Certificate of Award. Getting all this information together is quite a chore and many have worked on this project to get it sent in on time.
This next project had no award attached to it only reward for getting some dangerous chemicals away from the publics’ consumption. Many of us worked intercepting the cars to see what they had to recycle, to count tires, and show the cars where to go from 7:30 to 10:30 AM in Zemurray Park last week…in the rain! And the only reason we left at 10:30 was there was lightening, thunder and everybody’s phone going off…a tornado warning…take cover. Robert Morgan, Dept. of Roads and Bridges, shooed us home. It was Glenda Nelson, Mary Thornhill, Shirley Pellichino, Fran Steib, a few SLU students and myself, umbrellas and soaked to the bone! Feeling good about what we had accomplished but very tired!
A couple of announcements by Carolyn Todd our former president and now our District Director and they were: Summer Board Meeting will be at the Embassy Suites in Baton Rouge on 7/15/19, get your reservations in and the Presidents Meeting will be at Middendorfs Restaurant on May 24 at 10:30 AM.
Two more announcements the winner of the Garden Of The Month for April was myself, Linda Broussard and as I said my son Todd and my daughter in law Cathy should get all the kudos since I buy the flowers, tell them where I want them and maybe deadhead the blooms, but they do all the back breaking work including the lawn and spraying the weeds. Hope I can keep them as my gardeners for a long time! And for the month of May it was won by Marie and George Bernard in Ashton Heights Subdivision on Bradford Drive.
All of the above news was discussed at our May meeting which was held at the home of Ronnie and Cathryn (HGC member) Rossie. It was our tour for the year at their day lily gardens. Ronnie is the President of the North Shore Day Lily Society and after touring his gardens I can understand why. It was absolutely spectacular! Wish we had had a better day but it didn’t keep any of us from trudging along, sharing umbrellas and listening so intently hoping that one day our own garden could look 1/10th of what his does! So many gorgeous colors, some plain, some with ruffled edges, some with double petals, all so dramatic! Wish I could remember their names because they are all named and all tagged. What a tremendous endeavor!
When the tour was over we ate the delicious salads…..a great pasta and shrimp and a mixed green salad, prepared for us by none other than our wonderful caterer Marilyn! She also had tiered trays of cupcakes, vanilla, chocolate and red velvet with swirls of white butter cream icing….yummm so good!
This is our last meeting until the President’s Tea in August so I thought I would do a little summary of all our fun times and lots of accomplishments from this past year.
There was the President’s Tea in August where Sue Parrill won Member of the year! Hope that bird bath has been put to good use Sue. In September we decorated and made the table arrangements for the Patriot’s Ball, so beautiful!
The first cool breezes of Fall found our October meeting in Lee Collins’ back yard pavilion where Lee marched out from her front porch waving Old Glory when we noticed there was no flag with us for the Pledge of Allegiance! In November Johnny Pecoraro graced us with his demonstration of making wonderful arrangements.
Naturally in December there was a Christmas party held this year at Michabelle’s, we learned all about the presence of red birds in our yard. And in January we held our meeting, (made our New Year’s resolutions…NOT) and tried hard to listen to our plans for hosting the Joint Meeting.
And in February we held our Joint Meeting at the First Baptist Church Hall, celebrating President’s Day. Phyllis Mire, accompanied by Gayle Bornholdt sang the National Anthem. The playing of Taps concluded that celebration. In March the HGC won a rosette and blue ribbon at Arts In Bloom and gave us a slide presentation of the competition.
Probably one of the best “Day Trips” we’ve ever taken was in April to Chef John Folses’ White Oak Plantation. What a treat! The tour of the grounds, the food and service, fantastic! And last but certainly not least, our May trip to the Ronnie Rossie Day Lily Gardens.
It’s been a fabulous year, so many good things have happened, we have also helped many good things to happen. We’ve had lots of fun, accomplished much and all the while doing it with many good friends.
Until we meet again in August, enjoy your summer…we are going to, and may the good Lord hold you in the palm of His hands until we meet again!
The Hammond Garden Club is a proud member of the 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 Hammond and God Bless America!
by Linda Broussard
she is a member of the Hammond Garden Club
WOW! JUST WOW! I know by now everyone has heard that the city of Hammond has won, has taken the title once again of Cleanest City! That is thirteen (13) years in a row! Never before in the history of this city have we taken this award for 13 years in a row!
Oh my goodness there are so many people to thank for making this award possible and starting at the top it’s the Mayor…Pete Panepinto, Lacy Landrum Director of Administration, Whitney Stratham, Superintendent of Parks and Streets with the city workers (all the names I can’t recall) have made this city so colorful with all the plantings of beautiful flowers and keeping the trash picked up also. The Keep Hammond Beautiful organization does a tremendous amount to help us win this award, all the volunteers that come on specific days to pick up trash on the roadsides and subdivisions, we even have help from the prisoners on those pick up days.
And lest we forget it is because of the Hammond Garden Clubs involvement in the Louisiana Garden Club Federation that we even have the ability to be in the contest! And one of the biggest contributors to this win is our scrap book which you have to have to enter. If it weren’t for our “Artiste In Residence” Phyllis Mire for her art work and Glenda Nelson that collects all the newspaper and other paper work all year long that fill the pages of that huge scrapbook there would be no award!
So this Friday, May 17 the judges will be here again, (hope they never get tired of seeing us) to present the city with that beautiful pewter platter that has hung on the wall of the Mayor’s office for the past 12 years and this Friday it will be 13 years. Thank you to everyone (hope I didn’t forget anyone) that picked up even one piece of paper this past year or planted one flower, you contributed, and we love you for it!
Speaking of winners…the HGC, or Linda Ryan and Pat Graves have again won a Blue Ribbon, First Place in Competitive and Interpretive art with flowers at the New Orleans Museum Of Art “Art In Bloom” contest again this year.
And more winners LGCF, Inc. has awarded the Hammond Garden Club an All Encompassing Horticultural Honor Roll Certificate of Award. Getting all this information together is quite a chore and many have worked on this project to get it sent in on time.
This next project had no award attached to it only reward for getting some dangerous chemicals away from the publics’ consumption. Many of us worked intercepting the cars to see what they had to recycle, to count tires, and show the cars where to go from 7:30 to 10:30 AM in Zemurray Park last week…in the rain! And the only reason we left at 10:30 was there was lightening, thunder and everybody’s phone going off…a tornado warning…take cover. Robert Morgan, Dept. of Roads and Bridges, shooed us home. It was Glenda Nelson, Mary Thornhill, Shirley Pellichino, Fran Steib, a few SLU students and myself, umbrellas and soaked to the bone! Feeling good about what we had accomplished but very tired!
A couple of announcements by Carolyn Todd our former president and now our District Director and they were: Summer Board Meeting will be at the Embassy Suites in Baton Rouge on 7/15/19, get your reservations in and the Presidents Meeting will be at Middendorfs Restaurant on May 24 at 10:30 AM.
Two more announcements the winner of the Garden Of The Month for April was myself, Linda Broussard and as I said my son Todd and my daughter in law Cathy should get all the kudos since I buy the flowers, tell them where I want them and maybe deadhead the blooms, but they do all the back breaking work including the lawn and spraying the weeds. Hope I can keep them as my gardeners for a long time! And for the month of May it was won by Marie and George Bernard in Ashton Heights Subdivision on Bradford Drive.
All of the above news was discussed at our May meeting which was held at the home of Ronnie and Cathryn (HGC member) Rossie. It was our tour for the year at their day lily gardens. Ronnie is the President of the North Shore Day Lily Society and after touring his gardens I can understand why. It was absolutely spectacular! Wish we had had a better day but it didn’t keep any of us from trudging along, sharing umbrellas and listening so intently hoping that one day our own garden could look 1/10th of what his does! So many gorgeous colors, some plain, some with ruffled edges, some with double petals, all so dramatic! Wish I could remember their names because they are all named and all tagged. What a tremendous endeavor!
When the tour was over we ate the delicious salads…..a great pasta and shrimp and a mixed green salad, prepared for us by none other than our wonderful caterer Marilyn! She also had tiered trays of cupcakes, vanilla, chocolate and red velvet with swirls of white butter cream icing….yummm so good!
This is our last meeting until the President’s Tea in August so I thought I would do a little summary of all our fun times and lots of accomplishments from this past year.
There was the President’s Tea in August where Sue Parrill won Member of the year! Hope that bird bath has been put to good use Sue. In September we decorated and made the table arrangements for the Patriot’s Ball, so beautiful!
The first cool breezes of Fall found our October meeting in Lee Collins’ back yard pavilion where Lee marched out from her front porch waving Old Glory when we noticed there was no flag with us for the Pledge of Allegiance! In November Johnny Pecoraro graced us with his demonstration of making wonderful arrangements.
Naturally in December there was a Christmas party held this year at Michabelle’s, we learned all about the presence of red birds in our yard. And in January we held our meeting, (made our New Year’s resolutions…NOT) and tried hard to listen to our plans for hosting the Joint Meeting.
And in February we held our Joint Meeting at the First Baptist Church Hall, celebrating President’s Day. Phyllis Mire, accompanied by Gayle Bornholdt sang the National Anthem. The playing of Taps concluded that celebration. In March the HGC won a rosette and blue ribbon at Arts In Bloom and gave us a slide presentation of the competition.
Probably one of the best “Day Trips” we’ve ever taken was in April to Chef John Folses’ White Oak Plantation. What a treat! The tour of the grounds, the food and service, fantastic! And last but certainly not least, our May trip to the Ronnie Rossie Day Lily Gardens.
It’s been a fabulous year, so many good things have happened, we have also helped many good things to happen. We’ve had lots of fun, accomplished much and all the while doing it with many good friends.
Until we meet again in August, enjoy your summer…we are going to, and may the good Lord hold you in the palm of His hands until we meet again!
The Hammond Garden Club is a proud member of the 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 Hammond and God Bless America!
by Linda Broussard
she is a member of the Hammond Garden Club
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