Club members had a great afternoon at the CGC Holiday Party at La Tavola.  The Member Events Committee chaired by Kathy McNabb presented a lovely event that included socializing prior to lunch, a delicious luncheon and dessert, a “split-the-pot” raffle, plus the Club’s traditional gift exchange.  Janice Engel sold split-the-pot tickets during the social hour. The committee gave members participating in the gift exchange a pretty shell ornament that contained a number, and the numbers were used to determine the order of picking gifts from the gift exchange. Joan Husband served as official photographer and took all the photos accompanying this article.  Other photos are on our website, Calusa.org.

First Vice President Kimberly Korb Porter conducted a brief business meeting, and one item of business was recognition of Dale DeFeo as an Honorary Member of Calusa Garden Club.  Pictured is Kimberly awarding the Honorary Member Certificate designed by Eva Kubinsky to past CGC president and current District IX chairman Dale DeFeo. Kimberly thanked Dale for her years of service to CGC and for giving us the benefit of her experience in years of membership in NGC garden clubs and continuing her work with FFGC.  Then Kimberly recognized all the past presidents of the club, and presented roses to each of them.

After the brief meeting, Kimberly introduced the speaker, Florida nature artist John Costin.  Mr. Costin presented his beautiful life-like prints of birds of Florida and discussed the way he portrays them in their natural habitat.  He also explained intaglio printmaking, the method he uses for his artwork.  Mr. Costin displayed his large format book of bird prints, which was breathtaking!  After his presentation, members could purchase small reprints of his work, and many of us took home beautiful bird prints.

Thank you to Kathy McNabb, Maura Kelley, Claudia Bruni, Joan Husband, Janice Engel, and Kimberly Korb Porter for a memorable event.