Garden & landscaping show for May 2009 halfway there

The Yarmouth Garden Show Association has received a promise of $10,000 funding from the Department of Economic Development.

It’s also received word of $5,000 from the Town of Yarmouth, which is drawing the funds from their $80,000 grant reserve fund. Seventy thousand was distributed from this fund at the annual grants meeting last spring, however $8,000 remained for approved emergency requests.

A representative from the association presented a proposal to the Municipality of Argyle, which will be discussing a grant of $5,000. The Municipality of Yarmouth has also been approached for money.

The proposed budget for the show was close to $36,000, $10,000 of which was a reserve for start-up costs for a 2010 show. Blooms by the Sea will have several components including a trade show, gardening and landscaping displays, workshops and lectures, entertainment and other attractions.

The website: www.bloomsbythesea.com will be featuring continual updates as show plans develop and visitors are being urged to check back on a regular basis.

One of the goals of the association was to hire an individual to “pull the show together”. “We have been less than successful in finding somebody to act as a project coordinator,” said spokesperson Gil Dares. “The people that we identified, unfortunately, can’t do it for some reason or another.”

A solution to that problem has been found by forming a contractual arrangement with Julie Grandy from the South West Shore Development Authority to work on a part time basis.

Dares says the association is also encouraged by a possible partnership with Saulnier’s Home Hardware to arrange for gardening expert Mark Cullen as a keynote speaker. “I’m feeling pretty good about it all now,” said Dares. “I’m fairly certain that if we aggressively seek sponsors we will be able to make up the difference (in funding). I also think our estimates from revenues from the gate were very conservative. “We’ve had nothing but positive comments from people and they think this show is a really good idea that’s way overdue,” he said.

More volunteers are welcome to join the association and are encouraged to attend the next meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. in the Yarmouth Mariner’s Centre boardroom upstairs.