Darlington Garden Club cleans up Darlington
Members of The Darlington Garden Club take a break from cleaning up the Welcome to Darlington sign near Pate Elementary School.
Photo by Melissa Rollins
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
The Darlington Garden Club was hard at work last week bringing some color and much needed spring sprucing up to the Welcome to Darlington sign near Pate Elementary School.
Ronda Brown said that the club does special projects each year to help make the city beautiful for its residents and visitors.
“Every year the ladies suggest what project the garden club can do,” Brown said. “DeLette Jordan suggested that we do something with the entrances to Darlington. The Beautification has been working on a long-term plan for new signage to Darlington. I took that in and showed it to the ladies. They decided that if we were going to do something, we were going to go all the way; we were just going to plant plants but we voted to do more.”
Brown said that making a good first impression goes a long way when it comes to attracting visitors.
“The problem is that you only have so many hands and so many hours in the day,” Brown said. “Now this area looks more park-like and gives a better impression for people coming in to Darlington.”
The money that was used for cleaning up the area came from a fundraiser held every summer.
“We really are just the stewards of the money that is donated through that fundraiser,” Brown said. “This is a tribute to anybody who has ever given the garden club money.”
Brown said that donations they receive are a testament to the fact that people care about the way their town looks.
“Those donations show how much this means to the citizens of Darlington and the administration is willing to back that up by taking care of it,” Brown said. “This is where a lot of people who have never been to Darlington before are coming in. We want this to be your first view of Darlington, “Isn’t that beautiful” or “Isn’t that quaint.”
The Darlington Garden Club meets the third Monday of every month. Meetings are at 1 p.m. and the location changes. The club recently changed their name; it was previously known as the Kalmia Garden Study Club. For more information about the club and the meetings call Ronda Brown at 561-234-9411.