The Sayville Garden Club held their 45th annual Spring Luncheon recently at Land’s End and this year’s event drew close to 250 attendees, including many community members, friends, supporters and local garden clubs, according to Kay Porter, chairman of the luncheon for the last 11 years.
“I look around the room and see so many familiar faces,” Porter said to the guests. “I also see so many new faces and it’s our extreme pleasure to welcome you all here today.”
“It is great to see so many new people, and old friends here today,” added Pat Osarchuk, president of the Sayville Garden Club. “We will make this a sunny day despite the weather outside. Thank you to all the garden clubs that have come out to support us.”
This year’s guest speaker was Pat Zink, member of the Garden Club and owner of in Sayville. Zink, a self-taught floral designer, showed the audience how easy it can be to design floral arrangements.
The fundraising from the annual luncheon goes to fund the two scholarships the Garden Club provides each year – one for a Bayport-Blue Point student and one for a Sayville student.
Aside from the large turnout, the club also raised money with a 50/50 raffle and a room full of baskets – 91 in all – that were donated by local merchants. Aside from the amazing floral arrangements that were up for grabs, there were also gift certificates from area stores like , Bayport Flower House, , , , , The Fish Store, , , , and Satelite Pizza.
Founded in 1927 and federated in 1946, the Sayville Garden Club is a member of the National Garden Clubs and the Federated Garden Clubs of New York State, Second District. It has 63 active members and five honorary members. “We design, plant and maintain the front garden of the Gillette House,” Porter said. “The members also created and maintain the herb garden at Edwards Homestead as well as the garden at Sparrow Park.”
The club plants and maintains the vegetable garden at Meadow Croft, with the produce donated to the Sayville Food Pantry.
Other activities include: a bi-annual Garden Tour in Sayville with BAFFA; plantings donated to Sayville Public Library; volunteering at Good Samaritan Nursing Home doing holiday garden therapy projects; working with Keep Islip Clean with monthly clean-ups at the west end of Sayville; creating designs for the Bayport Heritage house tour in October, for the Sayville Historical Society Holiday House Tour, and for the Sayville and Bayport-Blue Point libraries in December; and decorating a room at Meadow Croft and at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum at Christmastime.
