Pond-O-Rama 2018 Wrap Up
Thanks SO much to all our wonderful Pond-O-Rama hosts who had their yards looking so lovely and for everyone who drove themselves all over St. Louis to visit so many of the sites! Quite a few went to almost all. Everyone I talked to really enjoyed the tour, and the weekend weather was perfect—up to 4:00 p.m. Sunday, anyway.
I’ve only received a few Host surveys so far. The numbers reported were 323, ~ 200, 241, 150, 65 and 108. There were many nice comments on the new feather flags. There have been several good suggestions too. Most are happy with the hours from 9-5, though one suggested ending at 4. We need more hosts in IL. We only need to have maybe two conscientious hosts each day find out where visitors heard about Pond-O-Rama rather than asking all hosts to keep track. The biggest problem reported was “my feet”. Just about everyone felt the visitors were the most fun – from talking with those who want to have a pond and sharing information and ideas, to helping to solve problems. And, of course, seeing how much visitors enjoyed seeing their ponds and yards!
Who came? The majority were already members, but almost as many came because they’d been on previous tours. A large number learned about POR in Garden Centers. Some had read about it in a magazine article or friends had told them. A few heard about it from a radio broadcast or newspaper article. (Thanks for the terrific detail, Jill Eichwald!)
There were so many people behind the scenes. All were a huge help. Ginny Mueller took care of publicity, turned over what’s been done previous years, and was there for me in many ways; Sherry Nelms handled the ticket advertisers; Dave Schiele, Ginny Mueller, Dee O’Neill, Dave Stahre and Cathy Schallenberg were ticket runners; Mary Nies and Diane Brader helped me with the ticket booklet; Rita Fritz and ticket runners helped hand out host items as well as ticket booklets; Tonya Summers organized the Host party food and the club voted to get the feather flags. Ticket sellers, too, played a crucial role, with Chalily, Ponds Plus and PondMarket topping the list.
You have no idea how grateful I am to every single person for all they did to make the Pond-O-Rama tour go well. Thank you so much to each one of you!