The basket hooks outside the Archie Browning Sports Centre will not be left bare this year thanks to the Esquimalt Garden Club. The Esquimalt Garden Club has donated seven hanging flower baskets to beautify the Esquimalt landmark. The Esquimalt Garden Club presented the baskets to Mayor Barb Desjardins on Thursday, May 28, 2009 in front of the Archie Browning Sports Centre.
For many years, flower baskets would hang each summer outside the Archie Browning Sports Centre. Due to budget constraints the municipality stopped funding this practice. This is the first year the Esquimalt Garden Club has made the baskets after being approached with the proposal in 2008 by Mayor Barb Desjardins, who was a Councillor at the time.
There is a long-standing partnership between the Esquimalt Garden Club and the Township of Esquimalt. For over two decades, the Esquimalt Garden Club has been provided space at the Parks Nursery to grow their bedding plants. The club then fundraises by selling these plants at its annual “Under the Arches” Plant Sale, hosted each May at the Archie Browning Sports Centre.
The Esquimalt Garden Club’s mission is to reinvest all the funds it raises to Esquimalt’s beautification. The hanging flower baskets are one example of the club’s work.
For more information on the Esquimalt Garden Club please contact Bev Hopkins at 250-384-2050.
Photo: Hanging flower baskets grown, designed and donated by the Esquimalt Garden Club to the municipality.
Photo: Esquimalt Garden Club present flower baskets to Mayor Desjardins. From left to right: Joan Kerley, Don Kerley, Flo Park, Sheila Hodgson, Bev Hopkins, Kay Grenke, and Mayor Desjardins.
Photo: Mayor Desjardins and Bev Hopkins hanging a basket.