The Woman’s Club of Hamlet was hostess to the Hamlet Tree and Beautification Group at the Club’s regular meeting last week. Speakers for the Beautification Group were Sheila Sellers, vice president, and Don Bryant. The Group was introduced by Ruby Bruce, president of the group and a former president of the Woman’s Club.

Sellers spoke of the Group’s work at Monroe Avenue School and its tree nursery there, a project which involves students in planting and maintaining tree seedlings, and featuring an annual tree giveaway. The students also participate in landscaping projects around Richmond County including Hospice Haven near Rockingham and Taylor Place in Hamlet. The Group also donated a landscaping project to the Woman’s Club, re-landscaping the area around the Clubhouse’s terrace, on Oak Street.

Don Bryant spoke of the Group’s landscaping project at the intersection of Battley Dairy Road and Highway 177, a project of longstanding interest to the Beautification Group. Bryant, a member of the Beautification Group, won the landscaping bid and recently completed work there. The planting included 998 Gertrude Condon daylilies, Indian hawthorne shrubbery, and a newly patented plant, Knockout roses, which bloom throughout the summer. The bid includes a one-year maintenance commitment, and encompasses 9000 square feet of landscaping. The project was funded by a grant from DOT, and stimulus funds assigned to road projects in North Carolina.

Judy Gibson, First Vice President of the Woman’s Club, offered special thanks to the Beautification Group for its re-landscaping of the Clubhouse grounds. The Woman’s Club contributes annually to the Tree and Beautification Group.