From left: Old Bristol Garden Club members Pat Kay, Tina Streker, Nancy Chick, Holly Emmons, Amanda Miles, Bunny Adams, and Blanche Johnson host a workday at the Blue Star Memorial in Newcastle. (Photo courtesy Nancy Chick)
In honor of Veterans Day, members of the Old Bristol Garden Club recently held a workday at the Blue Star Memorial in Newcastle, which is located just past the Damariscotta exit of Route 1.
In 1947 U.S. Route 1 was designated as Maine’s Blue Star Memorial Highway. The program was started in 1945 by National Garden Clubs Inc. and pays tribute to U.S. Armed Forces.
Blue Star markers can be found all across the United States. The Newcastle marker was erected in 1969 and was sponsored by the Old Bristol Garden Club.
The workday was organized by garden club board member Nancy Chick and her husband, Geoff. Their trailer was filled with trees, brush, and weeds that the work crew collected using weed whackers, chainsaws, shovels, and rakes.
In addition, three 55-gallon trash bags were taken to the dump with trash and odds and ends, including a broken toilet. It is hoped that the highway department will mow the site on a more regular basis, as was originally intended when the memorial was erected.
Nancy Chick has installed a fall themed wreath at the site. Plantings include hemlocks, hydrangea, and gold thread cypress. More plantings are scheduled for the spring.
