club news

+ Orchid enthusiasm

The Lakewood Ranch Gardeners Out East club found the best way to pack its meeting was to talk about orchids.

Gardeners Out East welcomed orchid expert Roy Krueger, president of the Manatee Orchid Society, to its meeting Jan. 9, at Lakewood Ranch Town Hall. More than 50 people packed the presentation.

Kreuger kept the audience's attention with fun facts about orchids, such as how the orchids that produce vanilla beans bloom only one day a year. He also covered the basics of orchid care.  He showed attendees how to identify new growth, when to re-plant orchids and how to replant them. 

Kreuger said successful orchid growing is more about matching your personality to the plant than being a terrific gardener.

“Match your orchids to your growing habits,” he said. “You’ll be much happier. You’ll become orchid growers. We’ll reel you in.”

+ Event 'sparkles' for charity

The University Park Women’s Club celebrated the holidays in style, raising about $10,000 at their annual charity event to benefit Just for Girls Elementary.

More than 100 guests donned tropical-themed attire sipped wine, snacked on hors d’oeuvres and socialized with friends on the outside patio of the University Park Country Club, before heading inside for a formal dinner, live music and dancing during the December event.

Event co-chairwomen Jennifer Bauer and Jane Paschke called the event an “informal formal,” a hiatus from the club’s traditional, formal-attire Diamond and Crystal Charity Ball.

“Our husbands didn’t want to get in a tux,” Paschke said with a grin.

Proceeds from the event and a silent auction benefitted the club’s designated charity, Just for Girls Elementary.

+ Leading the state

Knights of Columbus Council No. 13341 from Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church had eight

members become new “fourth-degree knights” in late November, during the Florida State Exemplification, in Orlando. The contingency was the largest number of candidates in the state.

Knights of Columbus is a Catholic men’s fraternal benefit society.