Plum Beach Garden Club
ESTABLISHED 1927
On behalf of Plum Beach Garden Club, I would like to wish you the happiest of holiday seasons. What a remarkable year 2020 has been! It is one we will all remember for years to come.....unprecedented in fear and uncertainty. However, one thing has been certain, the kindness and generosity that we’ve observed and experienced in so many ways. We’ve seen it in our families and in our neighborhoods, and we’ve witnessed it in our world. This Pandemic has forced us to pause, and reflect on what is most important in life.
I would like to reflect for one moment on the generosity that has been shown toward our garden club this year.
We have received so much support during 2020, so much kindness, and so many notes of gratitude for what we do for this town. In a year that promised uncertainty for our little club, we have managed to rally! And for that, we are most grateful.
• I would like to thank the Town of North Kingstown and the RI State Legislature for granting us funds to help with the maintenance of the village’s gardens.
• I am so very grateful for the unexpected donations that we received this year! One donation package helped us to renovate an overgrown garden in Updike Park.
• And the Brick Buyers.....let us not forget their kindness and generosity! We have had a record breaking year of selling bricks for the walkway in Old Library Park.
• The village’s residents, merchants and the HistWick organization have given us so much support this year by not only recognizing our accomplishments, but by simply thanking us....for that I am grateful.
• And lastly, but certainly most important, I am thankful for our members and the kindness and generosity that is always evident within the club. They are dedicated, hard working women that care so much, and are always willing to do their share.
Plum Beach Garden Club celebrates it’s 94th year in 2021. We enter this new year with renewed hope! We wish for each of you, a happy and healthy New Year! And, again....... thank you!
Holiday 2020 Message to the Community From
Kathleen Romeo, President of Plum Beach Garden Club
Highlights .... from 2020
October 2020 • Harriet Powell, center in photo, has been honored for her dedication to the rescue of pollinators with an Award of Excellence from Plum Beach Garden Club, presented by President Kathleen Romeo (left) and Pollinator Chair Carol Gjelsvik (right).
Harriet’s activism in educating people about the plight of the pollinators and what each of us can do to restore their numbers has made a difference in our community. Harriet played a leadership role, in partnership with Plum Beach Garden Club, in the establishment of the Pollinator Habitat at Casey Farm.
October 2020 • A new garden in Updike Park will bring all-seasons beauty to the corner of Brown Street and West Main in Wickford. The once overgrown space is now a natural complement to the park’s Anne Wallau garden, thanks to the generous contributions of Kostas Karampetsos, proprietor of Tavern By The Sea, and Joe Kolb, owner of Wickford Wealth Management, pictured with PBGC President Kathleen Romeo and Linda Sollitto, PBGC Civic Beautification Chair (l to r). The club planted and will maintain the collection of fragrant shrubs and trees that were particularly chosen to appeal to people and pollinators.
Plum Beach Garden Club has been awarded a $1,500 legislative grant from the state of Rhode Island.
Representative Robert Craven sponsored the grant and was on hand to congratulate PBGC President Kathleen Romeo, right, and club Treasurer Barbara Dawson in Wickford’s Old Library Park, one of the many gardens the club maintains.
The grant will help defray maintenance costs for the three Blue Star Memorial islands located at the “Gateway to Wickford.” The national award-winning islands are just one of the club’s many community beautification projects.
Summer 2020
The Rhode Island Federation of Garden Clubs has recognized PBGC with the YOUTH ACHIEVEMENT AWARD for the program about Monarch butterflies that the Youth Education Committee has been bringing to second graders since 2016.
Students at Stony Lane, Hamilton, Forest Park, Quidnessett, and Fishing Cove have learned about the plight of the Monarch butterfly, it’s importance as a pollinator, and how milkweed is essential to its survival … and they enjoyed planting milkweed gardens to do their part in saving the Monarch.
Plum Beach Garden Club has been awarded a $2,000 grant from the North Kingstown Town Council. Council President Greg Mancini was on hand to congratulate PBGC President Kathleen Romeo, center, and Linda Sollitto, Civic Beautification Chair, at the Welcome to Wickford sign, one of the many gardens the club maintains. The grant will help defray maintenance costs of the club's many community beautification projects in North Kingstown.
Summer 2020
Wickford residents Joyce and Dan Cushman are recipients of the Plum Beach Garden Club Award of Excellence for their beautiful gardens. PBGC President Kathleen Romeo, right, presented the award.
Joyce describes her design approach as whimsical surprises and beautiful flowers all around the gardens. "If it’s pretty and needs a home I just can’t say no.”
Summer 2020
Dr. Susan Kelly and her husband Paul Dean are recipients of Plum Beach Garden Club's Award of Excellence for making a prominent corner enjoyable for passersby. PBGC President Kathleen Romeo presented the award. Dogwoods and a Stewartia tree, Limelight hydrangeas, spirea, catmint, lilies and grasses ring the space, creating an eye-catching natural border.
Summer 2020