Youngstown Garden Club earns national recognition

Lewiston Porter Sentinel, December 13, 2008

Pictured above (left to right) are Elaine DiPietro, vice president, Federated Garden Clubs of NYS Inc.; Donna Gray, co-chair of the Youngstown Garden Club's Old Fort Niagara Committee; Judy Tucholski-Zon, FGCNYS Historic Preservation chair; and Gail McGee, director of FGCNYS, Eighth District.

The Youngstown Garden Club has been recognized by the National Garden Clubs Inc. as its Overall Winner of Award No. 51 - Decoration of Historic Building, for the club's annual holiday decoration of the French Castle at Old Fort Niagara.

For the past 30 years, the Youngstown Garden Club has been involved in decorating nine of the historic site's rooms for the fort's annual open house and candlelight tours. Now under way, the "Colonial Christmas by Candlelight" tours continue from 7 to 8:30 p.m. today, and next Friday and Saturday.

Later, these decorations are used for the Twelfth Night Ball fundraiser.

The club takes at least two six-hour days, sometimes in finger-numbing cold, to complete the project. And many more hours are spent planning, gathering, wreath making and painting materials. Club President Susan Loughran estimated that about 22 members worked 146 hours on last year's project.

To qualify for the National Garden Clubs Inc. award, the club was required to submit a book of evidence comprised of before and after photos, a floor plan, budget and written project description to the Federated Garden Clubs of New York State.

After taking first place in the statewide competition, the book of evidence was passed on to the National Garden Clubs, where it competed against winners from 49 other member states and the nation's capitol area. This national award was announced at the NGC annual convention in Boston earlier this year.

The award was presented to Donna Gray at the Federated Garden Clubs, Eighth District's fall meeting.