The Evolution of the Punxsutawney Garden Club

By Gloria Kerr for Hometown magazine

This is the second installment of a two-part history of the Punxsutawney Garden Club.

The first installment appeared in the May 2023 issue of Hometown magazine as the Punxsutawney Garden Club, officially organized on April 4, 1933, is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year.

Garden Club Evolution, Part 2 1970s-80s: The Floral Committee initiated a new Garden Club (GC) project in 1971: placing flower arrangements monthly in downtown locations including the public library, lobby of the Pantall Hotel, new Punxsutawney Area Hospital, which opened in 1973, bus depot, and some businesses. Eventually, members only placed their arrangements in the public library. The club first began planting flowers in the Barclay Square area in 1980 when members planted 220 geraniums around the Civic Complex sign and building.

One of the first public tasks the club adopted was the beautification of the center courtyard at the new hospital. Paul Barletta drew up the plans. Having worked on that project over several years, GC president Elaine Barletta in 1979 officially presented the completed courtyard to hospital president Joseph Yesh, along with her fellow officers, Ruth Fleckenstein, vice president; Louise Means, secretary; Jeanne Barletta, treasurer; and Elaine Barletta, president.

One of Garden Club’s most active and longest, continuous members, Dotty Jekielek, joined the club in 1976 when Roberta Dinsmore was president; Dotty’s name first appears in the 1977-78 club booklet, 47 years ago. Judy Hampton, the club’s third longest, continuous member joined in 1980, 44 years ago. Both have been, and still are, outstanding club leaders and contributors.

Established back in 1964-65, the GC Meter Urn committee was still planting annual flowers in the urns for summer beauty 10 years later in 1975 while in the fall having small evergreen trees placed in them before the late fall and winter holidays. In 1975 for the bicentennial celebration, patriotic red, white, and blue petunias adorned the urns. In October 1980, many meter urns were stolen from three different streets, leading the club to threaten to stop planting them.

In 1981, the club made planting the meter urns a public contest, asking anyone interested to “plant a pot for Punxsy.” Entrants brought their planted pots to the Barclay bandstand for display and judging on May 30. The top three winners earned prizes of $50, $30, and $20, respectively. The best pots were placed on the meter urns that year.

In 1977 the Punxsutawney Garden Club became affiliated with the Pennsylvania State Garden Club Federation and the National Association of State Garden Clubs and paid dues to both until 1994. During those years the club participated in required flower shows that were rigorously critiqued by Federation standards and delegates attended state conventions. Margaret Sloaf, Elaine Barletta, Nancy Hallman, Louise Means, Jeanne Barletta, Mary Jo McMillen, Judy Hampton, and Kathy Domb served as GC presidents during those 17 years. About 1986, club members’ interest in those ambitious flower shows waned, so members agreed, even voted, that they no longer wanted to expend energy and resources on such flower shows and official requirements. The club would eventually discontinue paying dues to those affiliates as it wanted to dedicate its resources to beautification efforts in Punxsutawney’s downtown only.

In 1978, Garden Club hosted its first Holiday Happening in November at the new Mahoning Towers. Called “Adventure in Decorating,” the event was a bazaar with crafts, demonstrations, ceramics, candy making, china painting, salt dough ornaments, bow making, cake decorating, and holiday centerpieces. Nancy Hallman chaired this first

The club began recognizing Gardens of the Month in 1992. Pictured is Mrs. William (Dorothy) Gourley at 408 West Mahoning Street so honored in 1993. (photo taken by The Punxsutawney Spirit) very successful event which continued to be held almost annually through 1985, usually at the Elks ballroom. Artist Joanne Garrett was an active member of the Garden Club at that time, and for several of the events she donated one of her artistic renderings of native plants as a raffle prize; in 1985 it was her popular “Lady Slipper” print.

The feminist movement of the 1980s was reflected in some changes to traditions of the Punxsutawney Garden Club. In 1980, the club moved meetings to 7 or 7:30 p.m. in the evenings to accommodate working women’s ability to attend.

- Continued on next page lic was invited. Records exist for a show at the Civic Complex in 1993, a 1995 show at the Pantall Hotel at which the club sold embroidered aprons and chances to win a Jane Wooster Scott print of The Pride of Pennsylvania, a July show at the Pantall Hotel in 1997 along with a Fall Happening in November, and July flower shows in 1998 and 1999.

Also, the club’s active year became March through November, eliminating booklets labeled 19781979.

In 2000 the Garden Club held a onetime event to raise funds called “Antiques on the Road Show” on March 18 at the Punxsutawney Area Community Center. It was inspired by a popular television show called “Antiques Roadshow,” which debuted in the United States in 1997. Chairing the event was Kay Nesbitt with Sandy Walko and Colleen Means. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. that Saturday, the club had two antique appraisers on hand to evaluate items. Participants were limited to three appraisals per person for five dollars. It was quite successful.

Another change came in the way members’ names were recorded in the club booklet that year. Since the club’s formation in 1933, members had not been listed by their first names but by their husbands’ names. For example, Roberta Dinsmore was listed as Mrs. Ray Dinsmore. Not so in the 1980 club booklet where her first name was now listed as “Dinsmore, Mrs. Ray W. (Robin).” Locally, women’s individual identities were being recognized as they were everywhere in the public sphere. For example, it was in 1981 that Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States.

Flower shows, whether governed by Garden Club Federation rules or conducted just for the club and local public, were popular annual or even bi-annual themed events in these decades. The 1983 show, celebrating GC’s 50th anniversary, was titled “Let’s Celebrate.” Others were “Country Charm” in 1978, “On with the New” in 1979, “Fall Fantasy” in 1980, “In Tune with Nature” in September 1982, “Holiday Harvest” in 1984, “Floral Serenade” in 1985, and “Groundhog Day” in September 1993.

1990s-2000s: Garden Club’s treasurer for the past 18 years, Debby Elder, joined the club in 1990. A GC member for 33 years, she served as club treasurer in 1992 through 1997 and was president in 1999. She again assumed the office of treasurer in 2006 and has been the club’s very competent treasurer ever since.

Listed as “continuing projects” in the 1992 club booklet are the flower urns and holders on the downtown parking meters, Barclay Square, and the Findley Street Cemetery, Punxsutawney Area Hospital courtyard, Blue Bird Boxes, collecting Commemorative Stamps for “Save the Eagle” (a national and state federation project also), Garden of the Month, and the plaza Trestle Bed, which was created in 1989. The first recognitions for Gardens of the Month began in 1992 with the public invited to nominate gardeners on forms available at several locations, including the public library.

The Punxsutawney Garden Club of the 1990s continued to have flower shows to which the pub-

The year 2000 also saw a fine stone planter constructed in front of the Barclay bandstand. In the first several years after it was built, a GC beautification committee planted it with red geraniums. Also in 2000, because PennDOT was doing some major renovative construction at the intersection of Jenks and Clark Streets and Hampton Avenue where Route 119 enters Punxsutawney, member Judy Hampton saw an opportunity to create one of its most visible and attractive flower beds that passers-by have “oohed and aahed” about since.

Learning that a large space at that Route 119 intersection was simply going to be cemented over, and not wanting “to see more cement,” Hampton says she contacted the PennDOT office in Indiana and got permission to turn the space into a large, semi-circular flower bed. The club also had the foresight to have a waterline installed to the bed with a spigot providing a reliable watering source for the large space. The Garden Club pays a monthly water bill for that convenience. The prominent sign in that bed reads, “Welcome from the Punxsutawney Garden Club.”

Just this past summer of 2022, 22 years after it was installed, the club did the first major renovation of that Jenks Avenue flower bed. The club hired a professional landscaping outfit with the equipment needed to remove some tough, old ornamental grasses that had become more weeds than ornament. The Jenks Flower Bed Committee replaced them with young boxwood shrubs that will provide an appropriate backdrop for the stunning, colorful from April through November. flowers that draw much admiration every summer.

Currently, the Punxsutawney Garden Club has these nine standing beautification committees with chairpersons noted: Hayracks, Dotty Jekielek and Kerri Stebbins; Meter Urns & Barrels, Debby Elder; N. Findley St. Cemetery, Clarence Troutman; Jenks Avenue Flower Bed, Judy Hampton; Jenks Grasses, Gloria Kerr; Trestle Bed by Tractor Supply plaza, Zana Fye; Barclay Square Bandstand and Library, Judy Hampton; Margiotti Bridge N. Main St., Melissa Ferguson; Fairman Centre Rose Beds, Gloria Kerr.

During Dotty Jekielek’s term as Garden Club president (2001-2003), the club revived home garden tours as a fundraiser. Six tours of local gardens, most having been recognized as Gardens of the Month, were organized in the next decade in these years: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, and 2014. Moreover, during Dotty Jekieliek’s presidency in 2003, the hayrack project was conceived; the Punxsutawney Department of Public Works installed the hayracks along downtown Mahoning Street in 2004.

The hayracks are the coco-lined wire baskets mounted high on poles along main street, 14 of them now. Both community members and visitors alike love the lush, colorful beauty of the bright pink begonias, multicolored petunias draping over the sides, and trailing sweet potato vines that fill them each season. Volunteers from the community with pick-up trucks and/or ladders take two-week shifts throughout the summer to water those beauties, sometimes every other day if the sun is hot and rain is scarce, from June through September.

Just last fall, the Hayrack Committee constructed over-sized Christmas ball ornament units which were installed to make the hayracks at Mahoning Street intersections festive for the holiday season and through the new year till after Groundhog Day. Next fall they plan to create more ornament units so that all 14 hayracks will feature the colorful oversized balls and greens.

The seed money for the hayrack project came from a $5,000 bequeathal from the estate of Matt Tibby. Community member Tibby was a much respected and honored veteran of World War I who died at the age of 106 in November 2001. The Garden Club appreciates very much his donation that represents the kind of public support that enables the club to continue its mission to beautify Punxsutawney.

2010-2023: Garden Club currently has 42 members listed in its 2023 club booklet. Over two-thirds of them actively participate in beautification and other projects. Unlike the club’s founding members, the club doesn’t meet wearing white gloves for tea parties, luncheons, and card parties. Meetings are still held on the first Tuesday of the month

The Garden Club funds its beautification projects through fundraisers and numerous donations. Its constitution includes a bylaw, voted on by members, stating that the club does not donate money to other civic organizations, as was done in the club’s early years. Members feel any donation given to the club should be used to beautify the community, not be arbitrarily spent on other group’s projects.

Recent club president Gloria Kerr joined Garden Club in 2005, and her name first appears in the club booklet in 2006. She served as club president in 2008; then again she was elected president in 2011 and served in that role continuously through 2022, for a total of 13 years. Programs over that period have included a meeting held at a goat farm with goat cheese tasting and farm tour, beekeeper Bob Means on beekeeping and honey collection, Bill Monaco on identifying Pennsylvania wildflowers, how to collect heritage seeds, field trips to a couple

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Punxsutawney Garden Club

Ppresidents: 1971-2023

1971-72 Mrs. Clark Miller

1972-74 Mrs. Anthony Barletta

1974-76 Mrs. John Means

1976-77 Mrs. Ray Dinsmore (Roberta)

1977-78 Mrs. Robert Sloaf (Margaret)

1978-79 Mrs. Anthony Barletta

1979-80 Mrs. Robert Sloaf

1981-82 Mrs. John Hallman (Nancy)

1983- Mrs. John Means (Louise)

1984-85 Mrs. Ron (Jean) Barletta

1986-87 Mrs. Paul (Mary Jo) McMillen

1988 Jean Barletta

1989-91 Judy Hampton

1992 Kathy Domb

1993 Mary Jo McMillen

1994-95 Carol Lowmaster

1996 Art Linhart/ Patti Daugherty

1997-98 Patti Daugherty

1999 Debby Elder

2000 Kay Nesbitt

2001-2003 Dotty Jekielek

2004 Mary Ann Anibaldi/ Patricia Murdock

2005-08 Patricia Prushnok

2008 Gloria Kerr

2009-10 Susan Lefcowitz

2011-22 Gloria Kerr

2023 Kim Wittenburg wineries and a hemp farm, Mark Kephart with his local wildlife photographs including eagles, and much more.

In March 2018, 2019, and 2020, the club hosted a very popular fundraising event at Joyce’s Greenhouse on the second Saturday in March. Called “Spring into Flowers,” the event included a fabulous breakfast/brunch, basket raffle, a professional speaker who presented a garden-related presentation, and the opportunity to plant a flower container with one of several live plant combinations. Joyce kept the pots warm, watered, and welltended in her greenhouse until event goers picked them up at the end of April. The COVID pandemic canceled the planned spring 2021 seminar as it canceled so many other events for everyone in the United States.

Flowers” at the Lions Club’s Camp Little Leo on a gorgeous September Saturday. Professional gardener, writer, and speaker Doug Oster from Pittsburgh made the featured presentation entitled “Fall Bulb Planting,” which included gorgeous slides Doug collected showing both lovely flowers that grow from fall-planted bulbs as well as a segment on garlic. Attendees enjoyed a beautifully presented brunch with many delicious choices as well as the chance to win raffle items.

However, in the fall of 2022, Garden Club held its last major fundraiser, a seminar called “Fall into

In the last decade during Kerr’s term as club leader, as noted, the Jenks Avenue bed has been renovated. Other Garden Club projects this decade include renovating the Fairman rose beds in 2012, totaling revising the Jenks Avenue grass bed in May 2014, planting new ornamental grasses and shrubs at the Community Center in 2016-17, replacing the dying Kwanzan cherry trees along downtown Mahoning Street in 2017 with Trinity pear trees and Royal Raindrop crabapple trees (both natives), replacing timbers and plants at the Trestle Bed near Tractor Supply in 2019, and taking over the Community Garden at Rotary Club’s request in 2020.

The Community Garden, however, will not be a Garden Club project this summer of 2023 as the Duffells, who bought the Pantall Hotel and are renovating it, have also bought the Community Garden lot back from the Presbyterian Church (which bought it from another Pantall Hotel owner a few years ago). The garden bed frames have been dismantled as the Pantall’s new owners will use that property in their renovations. The club is hopeful that the Community Garden can be relocated in the borough in the future.

A major project just completed is the Jean Deeley Memorial Garden created at Gobblers Knob in the area behind the building that houses a gift shop and large meeting space. When Garden Club member Jean Deeley passed away in April 2021, her husband Bill, a longtime president of the Groundhog Inner Circle, asked that memorials for Jean be sent to the Garden Club to create a garden in her memory. Jean had joined GC in 2000 and served as club treasurer from 2001 to 2005, the first two years as an assistant to Peggy Johnston.

The Jean Deeley memorial project features a low stone wall framing the garden that includes a sandstone bench for meditation. Chad’s Landscaping, Inc., did the groundwork. Garden Club members Barb Certo and Suzy Meyer have coordinated with Bill Deeley and Groundhog Club president Tom Dunkel on the project. Meyer has chosen plants, including many native plants donated by Garden Club members, to create a lovely space that will be an asset to Gobbler’s Knob and a fitting tribute in Jean’s memory. Suzy Meyer has been the garden’s master planner.

The Punxsutawney Garden Club welcomes new members. The current officers are President Kim Wittenburg, Vice President Suzy Meyer, Secretary Gloria Kerr, Treasurer Debby Elder, and Corresponding Secretary Dotty Jekielek.

The next GC meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 6, at Sharon Murray’s home at 905 East Mahoning Street, Punxsutawney. Dues are $10. If interested in attending, contact Gloria Kerr at drgkerr@gmail.com or any Garden Club member for more information.

Thanks to Barb Certo, who provided notes with information on the first two decades of the Punxsutawney Garden Club’s history, and to Debby Elder, Dotty Jekielek, and Judy Hampton, whose brains I picked for detailed memories of their many years in the club. Other information was gleaned from Garden Club historic scrapbooks, annual member booklets, and meeting records.

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