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Horsehead Bay Garden Club cultivates a sense of community service

Posted on December 19th, 2023 By: Marsha Hart

Adorned with faux cardinals, white lights, greenery, and red and silver decorative balls, the planter in front of Windermere Real Estate office at the intersection of Harborview Drive and Pioneer Way is dressed for the holidays, thanks to the Horsehead Bay Garden Club.

The club has been giving back to the Gig Harbor community since 1941. Members maintain five planters at the intersection of Harborview and Pioneer, but they consider the box in front of Windermere to be the flagship project. A group of six plant, water, and maintain the planter boxes.

Dressed for the holiday season, the planter in front of Windermere Real Estate office in downtown Gig Harbor is the flagship planter that the Horsehead Bay Garden Club maintains throughout the year. Photo courtesy of Bill Talich

Changing it up

“Every year we change it up,” said Sandy Ruffo, the club’s community service chair and past president. “One year we … focused on purple, and each year it is changed up in colors. The other planters, one on Pioneer in front of where Spiro’s used to be, we put long-standing plants with weeping camellias, and hydrangeas in another, and those fill up the planters. But the Windermere planter, we really dress up.”

Ruffo said that she and her late friend and fellow club member Kaye Bickford bought plants and asked for donations for the project. A plaque in honor of Bickford has been placed in that planter.

“She was a large part of the community service program,” Ruffo said.

The club took on beautification of the Harborview-Pioneer planters in 2015 with donations from the Downtown Waterfront Alliance, Windermere Real Estate, and Joanie Milton, Ruffo said.

Club formed in 1941

According to archives from the Gig Harbor History Museum, the club formed when Mrs. F.A. Valentine invited a group of ladies to her home to discuss forming a garden club in 1941. (At that time women were referred to by their husband’s names.) The Horsehead Bay Garden Club began with nine members at that luncheon; it now has 30.

Community service has been a focus of the club since its inception. Current president Sara McDaniel said that is important to her.

“In addition to gardening, it (community service) was the appeal of the Horsehead Bay Garden Club when I was invited to join,” McDaniel said. “Since the club began, we have been involved in the community in many ways.”

Horsehead Bay Garden Club members (from left) Sandy Ruffo, Shahla Waniska, Debra (DJ) Jacobson, Jeanne Talich, Laura McMonnies, Amy Fagan and Diana Reiman. Photo courtesy of Bill Talich

Community service, and some gardening too

Whether it’s delivering flowers to nursing homes and assisted living facilities or making donations to FISH food bank, community service has been as important as gardening to their club.

“We have a scholarship fund that awards a scholarship each year to a local high school senior who is in pursuit of a degree in horticulture or landscape architecture,” club secretary Jeanne Talich said.

“During WWII, the club focused on Victory Gardens, and met once a week to crochet Afghans for Madigan Army Hospital,” Talich said. “The club’s goal was, and is, the advancement of garden knowledge, and fellowship of gardeners with a focus on helping the community to maintain its beauty for all who pass through Gig Harbor, and to brighten the lives of those who live here through our horticultural efforts.”

In 2009 the club purchased the two Tom Torrens planters at the entrance of the Harbor History Museum, Ruffo said. Between 2011 and 2013 it also planted more than 2,000 daffodil bulbs at the Boys and Girls Club and Sehmel Park.

Ask for advice

Club membership is limited to 30 so that the members can maintain the tradition of meeting in a members’ home. But Ruffo said she is happy to share information with other gardeners who are looking for advice, or struggling with a gardening issue.

If you have gardening questions, you can reach Sandy Ruffo at [email protected].

The planter in front of Heritage Distilling color coordinates with the other planters that the Horsehead Bay Garden Club maintain in downtown Gig Harbor. Photo courtesy of Bill Talich