Monday Morning

We had 19 members at the Retlaw Hotel on Monday morning along with our guest speaker, Eileen Blackburn from the Master Gardeners Club.  Bonnie Baerwald circulated the sign-up sheet again for the Relay for Life Brat Fry.  Charlene Pettit announced an outing to “Music Under the Stars” for August 13th for the “Kids From Wisconsin”.  No need to sign up but you’ll want to be there early (6:00PM ish) to get a good seat.  Gary Miller announced an InterClub to the Oshkosh Mid-Morning Kiwanis Club for Friday, July 25th.  Four members volunteered to attend.  Glen Treml had a “Happy Buck” for his 39th wedding anniversary on Friday.  Dan Leeds was the winner of the 50/50 Raffle drawing on Monday and he drew the Six of Hearts, not a winner.  Next week’s drawing will have 16 cards with four pay cards and a pot of at least $492.

Eileen Blackburn – Wisconsin Master Gardener

Eileen started her journey to be a Master Gardener back in 1995 when they bought a new house and she started landscaping it. Seven or eight years later she agreed to be on the Agnesian HealthCare Garden Walk. Her reputation got around and she volunteered to redo the courtyard at Pier Elementary School. After she removed all of the “junk” from the courtyard she was able to plant and expand the plantings to include spring bulbs, azaleas, and annuals. The eye-spy feature interactive game draws all the children in. They then become interested in all that grows within its walls. This garden brings much joy to all that see it, and exposes children to a very special garden inside the school.

This spring Eileen was approached to help out at the Galloway House. As Eileen so nicely said, the gardens at Galloway had been neglected for a number of years and really needed a lot of work. The Master Gardeners Club supported Eileen’s efforts to begin a systematic revitalization of the Galloway Gardens by donating money and plants in addition to volunteer hours to accomplish this huge task. Our own Dave Lefeber is a volunteer in this project. Eileen volunteers 30 – 40 hours per week in this “labor of love” and has taken on not only gardening but also mowing, trapping cats, maintenance and lots more.