Stroud’s largest park is Foster Park, located at Gillispie Avenue and East 7th Street near Parkview Elementary School. The land was donated by the George Foster family and developed during the early 1950’s. The Foster family lived in the twostory house at the top of the hill west of Kent and Carolyn Clovis’ current residence. The park has seen many improvements over the last seventy years, but one thing has remained constant: the Foster Park sign located at the entrance. I’ve driven by it for so many years that I don’t really pay attention to the sign. As Town Talk continues to work to help improve our community, I try to look at things with a little more discerning eye. When I took the time to really look at the park sign, I realized what a cool, vintage sign it is, but it needed a fresh coat of paint. Another thing I noticed is the sign sits in a flower box, but I’ve never noticed flowers in it. I mentioned to Lavina Hinman that the flowerbox would look great with some fresh flowers in it. She took the idea and ran with it. She talked to her friends Pat Poskey, Nellie Faye Cooper and Jo Braden. They drove by to look at it and Nellie Faye decided they should immediately go purchase flowers and fill the box. Everyone has a “volunteer” niche and it’s just plugging into the project which interests you. Luckily, these ladies love flowers and were willing to help beautify the park sign. They are the same ladies, along with my mom, Aleta Smalley, who will be responsible for the lovely asparagus ferns that will be placed in the pots that adorn the gates to our cemetery. If you happen to bump into one of these lovely ladies when you’re out shopping locally, thank them for their contribution to the community.
Lyndon Patton has been busy planting flowers on Main Street in the flowerpots that are sponsored for Town Talk by local organizations, businesses, and families. If you would like to sponsor a flowerpot, the cost for the initial pot is $150. This fee just covers expenses and is not used for a fund raiser. With your donation we purchase the flowerpot, the flowers, a Route 66 sign, soil, and the sponsorship sign. Those signs are made locally by Sheana Newnam. After the initial purchase we ask for $20 a year to maintain the pots. New sponsorships to the program this year will be the classes of 1969, 1970, 1972 and the Terry family. If you would like to sponsor one, please contact Town Talk volunteers Cathy Terry or Andrea Thompson at Unique OK on North 5th Avenue or call me at 918-527-9833. We can never have too many flowers on Main.
Town Talk could really use more volunteers to water our Main Street flowers. We only have two days covered at this point. Julie Bivin and Linda Waller water on Thursdays and my mom and I on Tuesdays. Juanita Evans and Mary Hendrickson were faithful volunteers until Juanita suffered a broken wrist. The flowers do not always need water every day, but they should be checked daily to see what they do need. Some might just need to be dead-headed or the sign straightened. You may pick your day to water - morning or evening. Town Talk provides a wagon, donated to us by Main Street Family Clinic, full of water jugs for your convenience. Water is available at the Route 66 Pavilion and at Ed. Smalley Centennial Park. You will be given a list of all the plant locations. You will also be given a list of phone numbers of the other volunteers so that if you need to change days with someone, you can contact them. It’s more fun for two or more people to work together or even make it a family volunteer event and everyone can join in. Please contact me at 918-527-9833 if you can help us.
The golf course has arrived in Stroud. The next step will be to assemble each hole so we will be asking for volunteers to help with this project, also. It’s exciting and we need to get things moving to be able to open for Alumni weekend. Darrell McGuire from Depew said he and his family would be regular customers. They are a family of minigolf enthusiasts. I hope many more of you are, too!
This is the last paper for April so that means Mother’s Day is just around the corner. Check out all our local merchants to see what you can find to make your mother feel special on her day. Have a great week and as always, remember to shop and dine local……………….first.