To the editor:

The Fort Dodge Federated Garden Club expresses appreciation and thanks to all who supported another two of our recent events, the Federated Garden Clubs of Iowa 89th Annual Meeting and the “Twilight Tour,” our 16th annual Tour of Gardens. How grateful we are to be part of such a supportive community.

We want to thank all Fort Dodgers who helped make our state annual meeting a success. Thank you to Kerrie Kuiper and the Fort Dodge Convention and Visitors Bureau, Northwest Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, First American Bank, Decker Trucking Co., Becker Garden Center, Earl May Garden Center, Fareway, Hy-Vee, The Messenger, and C & S Bird Seed Co. for items to welcome our guests. Thanks to Steve and the staff at Best Western Starlite hotel for accommodating our needs. We appreciate, too, the welcome from Councilman Kim Alstott. We are grateful to The Messenger for publicity. Thanks to Fort Dodge Federated Garden Club members and flower show committee members who shared their time, effort, and experience and provided snacks for our guests. On behalf of outgoing FGCI president Loretta Daisy and flower show co-chairs Shirley Wolf and Nancy Phillips, thank you, Fort Dodge, for making us proud to host 91 guests from across the state.

We also want to thank all who contributed to the success of our “Twilight Tour.” To the homeowners and gardeners who so graciously displayed your gardens to the public, thank you. We know that you lovingly tend your gardens routinely, and that you gave extra time and effort to showcase your gardens for our tour.

We also thank The Messenger and Alpha Media for publicity and very useful photo coverage, the businesses who allowed us to post flyers, Becker Garden Center for handling the advance tickets, and all who bought tickets to view the yards and gardens.

Congratulations to Will Zabel, who won the “garden gate” prize, a pair of solar lights in the shape of garden flowers.

Every year we seek gardens and yards for our tour. If you are interested in displaying your garden next year, please contact one of the garden tour committee members.

Profits from our Tour of Gardens and annual plant sale support many projects, including horticulture and landscape design scholarships, public landscaping and tree plantings in Fort Dodge (Armstrong, Oleson and Expo parks and the “Square”), gardening books for the local library, the Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens, the Iowa Arboretum at Luther, our local flower show, and many more projects.

On behalf of the 2017 Garden Tour Committee (Loretta Daisy, Marilyn Peterson-Shipp, Diane Larson, Judith Walrod, Sally Allard, and Jan Krass) and the Fort Dodge Federated Garden Club, thank you.

Jan Krass

President

Fort Dodge Federated Garden Club

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