Southern Gardens Project - February 2006
This June 3rd, we will be hosting our first-ever charity rose show. This show is the big kick-off for our society’s national project of “Restoring Roses to Southern Gardens”. All proceeds from this wonderful event will be used for accomplishing our objective of providing a viable young rosebush, a rose care instructional pamphlet, and a handwritten message of encouragement from rose society members across America to each Gulf Region survivor who has experienced loss of home or garden, and sends in a request card for the rose. Many hearts and lives will be touched by this gift. Planting a rose in your yard denotes a love of beauty, a sense of permanency, and an expectant hope for the future. What a joy it will be to someday see our southern coastline come alive again with new homes and jobs and beautiful roses! This grand scale project is worthy of our full participation.
A fun way to become involved this June will be dressing up for the rose show! This year everyone is encouraged to let their inner “Scarlett” or “Rhett” take charge of their apparel selections. Antebellum costumes would be a wonderful way to stage-dress our show and make a lasting, Southern impression on all who attend.
The costumer that is used by the Old Riverside Foundation for their “Christmas Twelfth Night” presentation is Enchanted Attic in San Bernardino. The store is open 10 am-3:30 pm, Tuesday through Friday, and 10am to 2:30 pm on Saturday, and is located at 25899 Baseline. Its phone number is 909-862-2270; FAX number is 909-862-2535. This business has 20,000 costumes in sizes 1-60 and gives group discounts. The regular rental fee ranges between $55.00-$75.00 and each individual may come in for a fitting and choose their costume. For the group rate, the store mails out a form to be filled out with the sizes needed and instructions on how to properly measure. Then, when the form comes back, the store’s employees make the selection and have everything ready for the group’s leader’s approval. For a group of 15 the charge is $700.00, which works out to $46.66 each. For a group of 20 the charge is $700.00, which works out to $35.00 each. Long curly wigs are available for $10.25; styled antebellum wigs are $20-25. Each costume comes with the necessary accessories such as: hats, bonnets, hoop shirts and parasols. Shoes are in limited supply and sizes, and besides, your own shoes might be more comfortable for the day. They have an abundance of men’s, women’s and children’s fashions. The owners of Enchanted Attic are very service-oriented and work diligently to outfit their customers to perfection. They have a two week lead time for putting this together. What a great opportunity to play while we work!
Media coverage of this rose show will help launch our national campaign. We certainly will need all the public exposure we can get to make this dream become a reality. And to get things off to a good start in this regard, we have been in touch with Sunset Magazine and Inland Empire Magazine, the latter indicating it may do a feature on our society for its publication! Keep your fingers crossed as this would help our cause tremendously!
There are several jobs now available in implementing our project. I am in need of assistance from people with excellent phone skills. I also need people who have a computer (and know how to use it). I will discuss these service opportunities at our February meeting. It’s really getting exciting…so don’t miss out on the fun!
