Blue Star dedications and conservation tours discussed at garden club conference

Press release

Members of the Montana Federation of Garden Clubs Inc. came to Helena June 14-16 for the association's 81st annual session.

More than 80 men and women convened to share reports of club activities, participate in tours and programs and to gain new ideas how the clubs "Grow in Montana."

Members from Bullhook Blossoms Garden Club of Havre who attended the session were Jody Olson, president, Judy Ward, vice president, Cheryl Kuka and Sandy Curtiss, co-secretaries, Janice Brady-Bergren, treasurer, Gloria Tilleman, District 7 Director and members, Marisa Robertson, Linda Hoines and Karen Vosen.

Thursday night, the pipes and drums of Helena Black Devils dramatically marched into the cemetery at Ft. Harrison to open the dedication ceremony of a Blue Star Memorial marker at the Montana State Cemetery.

The Blue Star Ceremony was led by the Montana POW/MIA Awareness Association and assisted by the MFGC Blue Star Chairman Kathy Austin and the Girl Scouts of America Color Guard.

The Blue Star Memorial was founded in 1944 by the Garden Club of New Jersey to honor our service men and women. Now hundreds of Blue Star Markers have been place by National Garden Club members along highways, in parks and cemeteries and in civic places. The Helena Garden Club worked for several years to plan and fund the dedication of this memorial. There are 19 Blue Star Memorial markers in Montana.

Helena Garden Club Convention Chairman, Sue Leferink, and her committee provided tours and conservation activities at Terry Johnson's Farm and Lewis and Clark County Extension Test Orchard, the Sixth Ward Edible Forest Park and the Chadwick Test Orchard and Nursery. Workshops and programs included Preserving Montana Fruits, Native Bees of Montana and the Heritage Orchard Program Growing Fruit in Montana.

Additional programs were a feature movie on "The Flight of the Butterflies" at Montana Wild and "Bee a Wildlife Action Hero" presented by Naomi Alhadoff from the National Wildlife Federation.

Scholarships were awarded at the session to Ashley Wolfe who won the $1000 Life Members Scholarship and the $500 Murphy Scholarship and to Bailey Christofferson who won the National Council of Garden Club's Scholarship of $4500.

Jackie Watts, the Rocky Mountain Regional Director from Kansas talked about conservation programs in this region which includes Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah and North Dakota.

The Bullhook Blossoms Garden Club is a member of the Montana Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc. which represents more than 675 garden club members. Garden club members in Montana are responsible for civic beautification projects, conducting informative gardening programs and producing flower shows for their communities.

If you are interested in joining the Bullhook Blossoms Garden Club contact Gloria Tilleman at 265-2133. For more information about the MFGC and its member clubs go to http://www.mtfgc.org/.