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DeFuniak Springs
Wins Florida’s
2004 Garden
Club Of The Year
As you may have noticed the DeFuniak Springs Garden Club
has been very active the past three years with numerous civic projects
underway. Under the excellent leadership of Dara Dobson, president, the
club has grown to 62 members and has won numerous awards.
The 78th annual Florida Federation Of Garden Clubs State
Convention was held April 28 thru May 1st in Tampa. Florida has over 600
garden clubs that are members of the federation. representing almost
18,000 members statewide. This year The DeFuniak Springs Garden Club was
awarded the prestigious “Garden Club of The Year” for the state of
Florida. The club also represented Florida in the Deep South Regional
competition that includes the six southern states. DeFuniak Springs Garden
Club was awarded a second place certificate on the southern regional
level. The award is based on quality of programs presented to it’s
members, civic involvement, quality of club projects, and club growth.
Extra credit is given for scholarships awarded, having an educational
website, tree planting, doing public educational activities, promoting
garden club goals of environmentally friendly landscaping and conservation
of our natural resources. The club also won Florida’s “Midira Bickel Civic
Achievement” award for its beautification projects at the historical
buildings of DeFuniak (the Chautauqua building, the Library, and The Train
Museum/Depot area). The club also was presented a certificate for being
one of Florida’s top 10 clubs who planted the most trees in their
community.
The groups annual May awards luncheon was held on May
4th here in DeFuniak Springs. Marie Lathinghouse was presented with The
2005“Golden Shovel Award” for all her tireless work on the groups
landscape projects. Laura Roeser, Janel Goodchild, Peggy Caswell, Anne
Dudley, Vivian Slote, Howard Hiser, Gloria Kokowicz and Liz Sinclair were
awarded the 2005 “Golden Spade Awards” for taking part in the most garden
club planting projects this year. Barbara Allen received an award for her
valuable leadership in the DeFuniak Springs Library Reading Garden
Project. Barbara also received recognition for her outstanding website
work. There were numerous other awards given out to other members for all
the work they have done this year. The club has a wealth of talent and all
its members contribute to its success. At the end of the award ceremony
the members of the DeFuniak Springs Garden Club presented Dara with a
Lifetime Membership to the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs for her
enthusiastic dedication to the club. Dara is also the FFGC State Native
Plants and Wildflower Chairman, District I Roadside Beautification
Chairman, a nationally accredited Flower Show Judge, a provisional
Landscape Consultant and a Walton County Master Gardener. She serves on
the Florida Wildflower Advisory Councils Education Committee and the
Florida Department of Forestry’s Stewardship Forests Steering Committee.
She is dedicated to preserving Florida’s natural beauty with Florida’s
native trees, plants and wildflowers.
For information on how you can become a member please
call 859-0096 or 892-0624. Visitors are always welcome.
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