Aug. 2014

Meeting was called to order by Debbie Thomas at 7:06 p.m. There were 72 people signed in.

Kim Christoff went over the treasurer’s reports for May, June and July, explaining income and expenses.

Sue Mazi asked for a motion to be made to accept the May minutes as read. Marilyn Stavinga moved to have them accepted, and Pauline Bradford seconded the motion. Motion was passed.

Lori Maracle updated the members about our planting day success on May 24^th kand the purchase and placement of the downtown planters. She congratulated everyone on how beautiful the flowerbeds are this summer.

Debbie Thomas updated everyone on the June garden walk at Beth Powell and Ken Sherwood’s home in Canfield.

Their gardens are absolutely spectacular. 49 people attended and everyone had a wonderful time. Thank you to Beth and Ken for your hospitality.

The bus trip to Whistling Gardens and Bonnieheath Lavender farm was a huge success. Lunch was provided by St. James Eatery. Because we were upgraded from a school bus to a coach we were able to sell a few last minute tickets, taking a total of 51 people.

Roger Egger of Egger Truck & Machine Ltd. is maintaining the downtown fountain for us. The BIA has installed a heron statue on it. Roger is also watering the town beds this year. Thank you to Roger and Egger Truck & Machine for your invaluable support.

We have installed 2 herons and 2 big rocks in the Christmas tree bed in the gore. We put a heron on each side of the bridge and we installed a big rock in the Dunnville Secondary School bed. We are planning on having a heron installed on that rock.

Floral Clock: Thomas Mains Ltd. has maintained the clock for years. Jack Napper who now owns and operates the business has agreed to continue next year.  At the present time the clock is not running. We will be applying for a partnership grant from Haldimand County to have the clock repaired in 2015.

We are having a Flower & Vegetable show at the September general meeting. The show will be completely informal with no Master Gardener judges. Pauline Bradford has put together a list of classes that should prove to be interesting and fun. Lori read out the class list and copies of the class list were given out.

Anti-spam legislation: We are working on putting together a letter that will be emailed to our members. This only affects the members who are being contacted by email. You can choose to unsubscribe or remain on our list. Please read it carefully when you get it. Please make sure that Kim has your correct email.

We will be applying for 2015 grant money from Haldimand County in October. Debbie asked if anyone has any ideas of projects that we could take on for next year to please let her, Lori or Kim know. They form our grant committee.

Lori read a letter from Lester Fretz telling her how much he likes the DHS. He has worked with numerous charities over the years and especially likes what we do.

At our November meeting we will be swearing in our officers for 2015. Please see one of the executive members if you have any interest in becoming a member of the board. Don’t be shy! We need to know by October’s meeting.

We’ll have a Penny Sale again at the November general meeting with lots of great prizes. This is our annual Christmas celebration and the Penny Sale was a big hit last year.

Maura asked for more volunteers to help with the kitchen. Volunteers are needed for the next 2 meetings.

Councillor Lorne Boyko spoke and congratulated us on our beautiful flowerbeds. He acknowledged our hard work and dedication and presented our 2014 Trillium Awards. 15 residential properties and 3 commercial properties received this year’s award:

628 South Cayuga Street W	908 Cedar St
414 Maple Street	1362 Bird Rd
39 Oswego Park	112 Jarrett Place
438 Robinson Rd	113 Kneider Ave
438 Broad St. W	450 Main St. W
8 Meadowbrook	440 Broad St. E
2610 Lakeshore Rd	Highway Chapel Church
787 Marshall Rd	Dunnville & District Credit Union
405 Chestnut St	Dunnville Public Library

Congratulations to all the winners! Pictures of the winning homes are displayed on the wall in the Optimist Hall, and the 2013 pictures were taken home by their respective owners.

At 7:45 p.m. we took a break for food. Pizzas that were donated by Pazzo’s Pizza were absolutely delicious as were the goodies made by Maura Cooper and the sandwiches made by Gloria Hunter. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the wonderful food.

Shortly after 8:00 p.m. Lori introduced our speaker for the evening, Ms. Leanne Dykun. Leanne owns a florist and gift shop in downtown Dunnville. She showed us how to put together an arrangement using Oasis and various flowers, vegetables and greenery. After her demonstration 5 of her gorgeous creations were raffled off. The winners were Deb Zinomirski, Bruce Nevils, Marie Bak, Lorraine Stevens, and Ken Sherwood. Congratulations to our lucky winners.

Lori took a moment to thank our Trillium Award judges for volunteering their time and also said thank you to Ian Steel who is our webmaster.   He provided the wonderful slideshow for the evening, and framed the Trillium Award photos.

Ways & Means winners were called. Thank you to everyone who donated items for the table and to Betty Ballanger and Gwen VanNatter for a job well done. We raised $68.00.

Maura announced that she has volunteers lined up for September and October’s meetings for kitchen help. Thank you to everyone who donated to the kitchen fund.

Thank you to our 2 dedicated students, Ethan and Aidan for all their hard work setting up and cleaning up.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m.