Wayne Allen | Daily Times

Janet Evans of the Double Delight Garden Club is pictured decorating a winter village at Shawnee Lodge.

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Wayne Allen

PDT Staff Writer

Members of 10 area garden clubs gathered at Shawnee Lodge Tuesday to decorate for the holiday season. This marks the 21st year for the garden clubs come together to decorate the lodge for Christmas.

Linda Warfield, Portsmouth Garden Club, said this is the first year the lodge is being decorated by garden clubs from Region 10 of the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs, not just garden clubs from Scioto County.

“Region 10 includes Scioto, Lawrence and Pike Counties. In the organization the state of Ohio is divided up into regions, so now this is a regional project rather than just a county project,” Warfield said. “It’s important to us that other fellow garden clubs get involved”

She said with the addition of Lawrence and Pike Counties three additional garden clubs were represented during the decorating. The reason they keep coming back to decorate every year, she said, is because, “it’s a community service. This is really important to us, that the community has this place to come a utilize and enjoy it.”

Teresa Book of the Slocum Garden Club said honor students from Minford High School, New Boston High School, and Clay High School were also on hand to help with the decorating.

“We just enjoy being together during this time of fun, fellowship and decorating. The end result is just fabulous,” Book said.

Karolyn Ketter, with the Portsmouth garden Club has been helping to decorate the lodge since 1991.

“We do much more (decorating) than we did in 1991,” Ketter said. “It’s been fun over the years, everyone really looks forward to it. It’s a fun project and we get so many great comments. They’ve had weddings out here because of these decorations. You could not ask for anything better to draw the people in.”

Robin Mcintire, General Manager of Shawnee Lodge has seen the decorating of the lodge progress over the years.

“In the beginning the decorating was small and each years it’s grew a little more. At one time it was a lot of bright colors, then it went to a nature type theme. This year we added a little color back,” Mcintire said. “We love this time of year, everybody works together to get everything done and we have lunch for everyone and we do an appreciation luncheon for everyone in the spring to honor all the ladies that donate their time to make this a beautiful spot for Christmas.”

An open house is being held at the lodge on Dec. 9., as apart of the event a craft fair will be held. The event will include local entertainment including Portsmouth West High Choir. The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The decorations will be available for the public to view from today through Jan. 7.

Wayne Allen may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 228, or wallen@heartlandpublications.com.