100 Mile House got off to a great start in its inaugural entry in the Communities in Bloom (CiB) competition.
We can remember when some Clinton CiB representatives made a presentation to the District of 100 Mile House council about getting involved, and councillors were hesitant about leading the push.
That all changed a couple of months later when South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce vice-president Tom Bachynski stood before council and offered to partner up with the district to form a local CiB committee if the councillors put up the entry fee.
There was a proviso on the handshake contract that both parties agreed to and that was district operations supervisor Kevin Dicken, who is a horticulturalist, would work closely with the committee.
And then they were off to the races.
Well, they soon realized there were a lot of rules and regulations to follow, and paperwork that they had to produce.
There was a steep learning curve, and as the local committee members rolled up their sleeves to get down to work, they must have felt like they were reinventing the wheel.
In fact, they were when it came to getting the CiB competition off the ground in 100 Mile.
But they plowed ahead, spread a little fertilizer and planted some seedlings in the minds of the local residents with a couple of early community events.
Then they embarked on a massive publicity campaign and explained every facet of the CiB program, with photos of people cleaning up or planting gardens, and constantly encouraged people to get involved with the "Best Of" garden and landscape competition.
In the last couple of weeks before the CiB judges came to town, all of that hard work blossomed and community enthusiasm hit a fever pitch.
Everything culminated with a great community barbecue in honour of the judges' visit and the awarding of the Best Of awards in Centennial Park.
Win, lose or draw, we'll be better next year because we'll know what we have to work on thanks to the groundwork by our CiB committee.
