Bay Shore Beautification Society Newsletter                                www.Beautificationsociety.com            PO Box 698M, Bay Shore, NY 11706

         I’m not daring to say this out loud, but it does finally look like Spring Has Sprung!  Crocuses, snowdrops and irises all in bloom—what a delight to see!  Just a few years ago, Beautification led a wonderful Bay Shore-Brightwaters event called Spruce Up Bay Shore-Brightwaters.  When our lead person moved out of town, the event was paused, but now it’s back in full swing sponsored by the Beautification Society and the Bay Shore-Brightwaters Summit Council!  It was an inspiring day seeing so many groups of people working in so many areas to make our town stand tall!   A flyer is enclosed which will give you full details, but it’s time to get out the rakes, shovels, grabbers and cultivators, find a clean-up or garden project that needs to be done, get your neighbors, friends, team, club, church school or organization involved and go to it!  Choose a spot that needs a clean-up or a new garden: find a sore-looking empty lot, help an elderly neighbor with raking or weeding, do a litter patrol in your neighborhood, plant or redo a garden.   This will all happen on Saturday, May 11 all day long.  Don’t forget to register your project on Face Book at Spruce Up Bay Shore-Brightwaters FB page. If you don’t have a project, bring your gloves and tools and head to the Band Shell on Main Street to join in and find a job you’d like to do.  Seeing so many volunteers working together–this is Bay Shore-Brightwaters at its best! Beautification’s project is the renovation of the train station gardens.  Landscape architect Greg Moran and Tina Moran of Once Upon a Garden have created a beautiful plan for the gardens.  We are coordinating with the Planning Department of Islip Town and should have everything in place by May 11.  We need volunteers to help with preparing the ground and the planting.  All hands on deck, so we will definitely need your time and energy when we put the shovels in the ground.

         The Hanging Basket Program is in full swing preparing for the four hundred baskets (increased from last year’s 350) to be hung around Mother’s Day.  Many thanks to Suffolk Transportation which generously sponsors ten baskets every year.  With the new lamp posts that were installed on the east end of Montauk Highway, Northwell Health has sponsored twenty baskets, so the baskets will now be hung further east on these new poles.  Please use the enclosed flyer to support the basket program that brings so much beauty to our town spring through fall.  On the reverse side of the Basket Sponsorship Form is a form for Beautification Dues.  Dues are only $20 a year and help support our many projects throughout the town, so please join us in our efforts to keep our town clean and attractive.

With the grass turning greener, it’s time to once again start acknowledging the owners of the homes we love to see for their attractiveness, care and neatness.  The Nominate Your Neighbor program has been renamed in honor of one of our long-time members who passed away earlier this year and was the force in making the program a success.   It is now The Gwen Cox Nominate Your Neighbor Award and we hope you will use the enclosed form to recognize a home that you admire.  Thanks to Colleen Valdini for volunteering to chair this program so that it will continue.  The form is online and has been updated to include an email address so that it (or just the information) can be emailed directly to Colleen.

We are continuing to work on revamping Light the Night and need new volunteers to help in all capacities:  Head Block Captains, Block Captains and luminary lighting.  We are working to expand Light the Night into new neighborhoods, so if your street is not lit on this wonderful night, please contact us.  We have several new members but are looking for more to come to our meetings.   Ideas for making our town even more attractive are always encouraged, so come join in!  

A storage facility is needed for approximately two months to store the luminaries.  Previously, the storage unit was donated by the facility but it is unable to do this any longer.  We need a benefactor who would donate the cost of the storage facility, approximately $300.  Please let us know if you would like to sponsor a unit for Beautification.

Questions:  Call Sue at 631 666 9517 or Gail at 631 334 1041. 

Meeting Date: Thursday, September 21, 2017, 7 PM, Teachers’ Cafeteria in the high school.

Why does it seem that summer is only two months long while winter lasts at least four months? Those lazy, hazy days of summer go by way too quickly! Just ask any student who’s now returned to the classroom!

Beautification is really excited about our NEW EVENT, a contest called Pumpkin People, which is scheduled for the entire month of October! This is bound to be another tradition in Bay Shore that will provide tons of fun and bring many visitors to our town and our businesses. So just what is Pumpkin People? Here’s what you need to do…Create a Pumpkin People (one or more) that represents your business, organization or family and display it in front of your store, business office or home. For instance, a medical center might choose to have a doctor or nurse in front of the office, a church might have a bride and groom, a school might have a teacher with students, an auto mechanic might have a mechanic fixing a car. You get the idea! To see photos of Pumpkin People, enter pumpkin people of NH into your computer browser.

So, how is are Pumpkin People created? Details for making one can be found on a Youtube.com video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ko5EqCfFxw. Basically, a frame is made, the clothes added along with a pumpkin head (or suitable alternative if you don’t want to use a pumpkin) and then either supported on a lamppost, telephone pole or built to be free-standing. We want this to be a huge event in Bay Shore, so grab your cohorts and start planning on how you will create your own Pumpkin People. To enter the contest, take a photo of your Pumpkin People and along with your information send it to Beautification. Complete details are on the enclosed flyer or on our website Www.beautificationsociety.com.

October is an exciting month as the Haunted Garden is back with more thrills and chills! It will be held on Saturday, October 21 with a Rain Date of Saturday, Oct 28. Our committee has been fearlessly working to make this the scariest and most fun event they’ve ever put on yet! Come see the peaceful Beautification Reflection Garden (100 West Main Street) transformed into an eerie, scary, spooky, ghostly, spine-chilling, hair-raising, blood-curdling scene!   You get the idea…just don’t miss this once a year thrilling Bay Shore event! In addition, bring a carved pumpkin to enter into the pumpkin carving contest just across the street from the garden. Wear a costume and take part in the costume parade starting at Shore Lane and Main Street at 4 PM.

Thanks to everyone who so generously donated to the hanging basket program. The baskets suffered a bit from the heat and dry weather, but will regain some health and be beautiful well into the fall season.   If you haven’t sent in your check to help us pay for this program, please do so as we need to pay the bill in December for next year’s baskets. See the enclosed flyer.

The veterans from Beacon House are still weeding Main Street, the side streets and a part of Union Avenue. They will work into October and then continue again in the spring. (This is another program that we need to pay for!)

Congratulations to the members of the Bay Shore Lions Club who are celebrating their 100^th birthday. They have selected 100 outstanding citizens who have contributed to the betterment of Bay Shore and will host a luncheon in their honor on September 10 at Captain Bill’s.

Dates to Remember: Pumpkin People Contest: October 1-October 31

Haunted Garden: Oct. 21 & Rain Date Oct 28             Winter Fest – Saturday, Nov. 25

Light the Night: Sunday, Dec. 10. Rain Dates: Saturday, Dec. 16; then Sunday, Dec. 17.

Beautification Luncheon: Wednesday, ­­­­­June 20.

We would love to have you join us at our meeting on September 21. See above for details.