Star Spangled Violets

Star Spangled Violets - Nov 2004

Radisson Hotel, Annapolis, MD

Opening Day, Thursday

The picture of the hotel above was actually taken on Saturday which turned out to be a beautiful Fall day. Opening day on Thursday was warm and sunny as well. Our only "bad weather" day was Friday when it rained a cold rain, however since this was Annapolis it only was rain while New York and New England - the Northern part of MAAVS land - received snow.

MAAVS President, Ken Barbi, receives his MAAVS Convention Program book from MAAVS Vice President Laurene Jones. Convention Registration is normally handled by the host club which in this case is Baltimore. Laurene, who is a member of Old Dominion AVS, filled in as an "honorary" Baltimore club member. A big "Thank You" to Laurene.

MAAVS Walkabout

The MAAVS Ways and Means table was ably staffed by Donna Christianson and Mary Mostafa. No, the bottle of Chardonnay on the raffle table is not for Donna. It's a donated item for the MAAVS raffle. Mary also was in charge of show plant sales - here (left side) she's writing up a sales ticket for one of Rodney Barnett's prize winning Chiritas - Chirita Keiko. I promise to take good care of it Rodney - honest! Later in the evening Mary demonstarted her additional talents operating the blender to mix Margaritas at the Online Brats Party. (More about that later).

Ken and Mary involved in a deep and thoughtful discussion about the pricing for a show plant. Meanwhile, on the other side of the showroom cameraman Jack Wilson captures a few plants from the honors table on his digital camera. Jack will be posting these pictures on his light stand in Florida to try to duplicate these winning plants and their winning cultural habits.

Diane Richardson (seated) discusses the fine points of the underwater designs with Design Schedule Coordinator Bob Loomis. Looking on is Brenda Nyce and Roxanne Shrewsbury. Putting on a show of this size (277 exhibits this year) requires lots of good help. Rodney Barnett and Carol Hamelink made sure the hospitality room was well stocked with goodies.

Jack Wilson parts with a large percentage of his checking account balance. The smile on Paul Sorano's face says it all.

Madam Chairman

A show this size needs one of the best violet growers in the country. Marie Burns just happened to be a Baltimore club member and was unanimously selected as MAAVS Show Chairman for 2004. On the right is a nice picture of one of the show table decorations. The red rockets were also used for the Saturday Night awards banquet. This literally is the rockets red glare.