Coshocton In Bloom celebrates volunteers with dinner and awards

Coshocton In Bloom hosted a dinner and awards party in Montgomery Gardens at Roscoe Village on Sept. 18. 

The vision of Coshocton In Bloom was created in 2010 by a group of people looking for a way to beautify the community. CIB has already received two awards from America In Bloom United for the best use of containers in a landscape and best hanging basket programs.

"Our organization relies significantly on volunteers,” President Tim France said. “Tonight is our recognition dinner for the volunteers and anyone who is a stake holder. We are having a dinner, a celebration and recognition of people’s hard work. I've got one lady that is 91 years old who comes and has helped me for several years.”

The designed pots you see around town are rented out, and there are more than 400 of those.

“We charge rent for them, and we maintain them,” France said. “Anyone who has rented a pot, volunteered in our green house, volunteered to help plant or water plants for us, anyone that is employed — and we have three employees — were all invited to the celebration. We recognize the volunteer hours they put in. This year we set up specific hours and posted them on Facebook. If anyone wants to volunteer, we post times someone will be at the green house, and they can just show up.

"A lot of organizations also schedule times. We had a whole garden club one night. A group from West Lafayette came to tour and enjoyed the presentation of our history of the organization. Volunteers are what we're all about. We have guys committed to help us. We appreciate it, and this is our thanks.”

Recognized for the most hours were Kelly Tignor and Fred Hammond.

"What is fun about those two is they are self-starters. They just show up and sometimes say, 'What do you need me to do?' and they do it, or 'I can come tomorrow,' and they do the work," France said. "Both of them are walkers. Fred walks his dog all over town and makes special trips to walk through Roscoe with his dog to see what we have planted and sometimes texts if he thinks something looks off. Kelly does the same thing, and she got her sister involved. She recruited help, and you don't just take ownership; you provide education.

"She has taken things home and practiced what she learned in the green house. She walks downtown sometimes with her sister. They carry their clippers with them and dead head plants that need trimming. By showcasing her skills at her home, her friends want to know how to do that — how do you make it look that good and what do you use? You don't just volunteer; you take ownership and provide education, and they are taking that education beyond.”

One of the board members even got her students involved.

“She is a second grade schoolteacher in Coshocton,” France said. “She brought the whole class to the green house. That presentation provided an education in science, growing things, nature, seed germination, and they planted some things. When Mother’s Day came around, we gave them their plant so they could take it home and give it to their mothers and were able to say, 'I planted this.'”

Volunteers also planted more than 20 trees on people’s lots last year.

"If you know a spot that could use some trees anywhere in town, we hire a guy to put them in the ground, and all you need to do is maintain them,” France said. “Just get on the Facebook page and say, ‘I'm interested.’ Last year we were a little bit overwhelmed. I think we had 24 requests and were able to fill about 20."

New this year is 78 new pots for Skip's Landing and the McWane River Walk. They will have their own set of pots and their own design.

"We have ordered more containers for that and more surround baskets for the light poles that they are going to put in,” France said. “So we are going to have more things to water. The program keeps growing, and it is a lot of work. Every volunteer hour helps. People from Dresden, Newcomerstown and West Lafayette come because they enjoy being in the green house, especially in the spring when it's cool outside and it's warm in the green house and they learn a lot that they can take home.

"Dresden is planting more flowers, and they are getting things from us. West Lafayette has containers, and we help Newcomerstown. In the spring we met with representatives from New Philadelphia because they needed advice to start their own program. They started small this year. It is making a difference, not just here, but in other communities as well. That's the kind of impact we want to have.”