By Elsie Meyers

The South Central District held its spring meeting  in Chatham at the Baptist Church on April 17 at 10 a.m.

Marilyn Eanes Shorter, South Central District president, called the meeting to order.

Shorter presented Janice Clem, president of the Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs, a framed picture of the monarch butterfly.

Keysville Garden Club received three awards, including a first place and second place award for yearbooks for the South Central District and the Federation of Garden Clubs.

The awards were in recognition of distinguished work on the 2015 Plant Together Project.

The host clubs were the Gretna, Maude Clement, of Chatham, and Stanton River Garden Club.

Shorter chose for her theme “Let’s fly into the future.”

Diana Swartz, chairperson of the “Journey Through Hallowed Ground Project,”told about the Civil War soldier who died. She explained the tree project.

The trees will create 180 miles from Monticello to Gettysburg, Pa., along the journey, establishing the Hallowed Ground National Scenic Byway of Service to remind each traveler along the way of the enormity of the loss.

Trees to be planted include red bud, which bloom in the spring, red oak, for summer, red maple, for fall, and red cedar, which is colorful for winter.

Each tree is $100 and a soldier’s name will be tagged to each tree.

Garden clubs are selling gloves to help with this project.