Longboat Key Garden Club named grand marshal of Freedom Fest parade

Although the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce’s Freedom Fest will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this Fourth of July, the annual event still managed to break new ground this year — by choosing for the first time an entire organization rather than an individual as grand marshal of its July 4 parade.

“The Garden Club was chosen because they have done so much to beautify Longboat Key over many, many years,” said Gail Loefgren, president and CEO of the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce. “The money they raise from their fundraisers (is) plowed right back into making our island paradise even more spectacular. Our community owes them a debt of gratitude and the LBK Chamber appreciates their service.”

Prior to COVID, the club had about 300 members. But due to a lack of activities membership dwindled slightly, said Susan Phillips, longtime garden club member, and chair of multiple club committees. She also served as club president for eight years. Now the club is building back with 270 members.

Among the club’s many projects during its  54-year history was creating the Bicentennial Park in Longboat, where the Freedom Fest will take place on July 4, said Phillips. The shade trees in the children’s playground at Bayfront Park were a club donation as part of the Bayfront Park redevelopment in 2017.  The club’s beautification and landscaping efforts and fundraisers have supported countless highly visible sites on the Key.

“Our next project we are very excited about — a beautification project at the new Town Center Green and around the Karon Family Pavilion. This is a legacy project for us — something the entire community will enjoy for decades into the future,” explained Phillips. “We’ve also planted trees in every town park on the island.”

The club’s fundraising also supports a number of “meaningful missions” on Longboat, providing college scholarships to students in environmental, conservation, biology and marine science disciplines and sending children to summer camps at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium and Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.

“We partner with Longboat Key Turtle Watch and the town for informational materials about turtle nesting and how to help sustain that species,” added Phillips. “Dozens of other organizations have partnered with us or received grants annually.”

One of the club’s most beloved projects is the annual butterfly release as part of Freedom Fest. Planning for the release starts long before July 4.

The club orders 100 individually wrapped butterflies seven weeks in advance of the event, said Phillips.

Prior to July 4, the club replants the Butterfly Garden in Bicentennial Park.

This year on June 25 at 8 a.m. the club will hold a group replanting with probably 35-40 new plants, explained Phillips. The plants improve the habitat for butterflies offering nectar and host sites.

The butterflies are kept on dry ice until just after the parade.

“Then I open the container up to let them warm as we give them out to kids and then to parents and anyone else who wants to release one,” explained Phillips. “The grand marshal releases the first one, and then everyone else … It is the most delightful thing you’ve ever seen — the kids’ faces when their butterfly flutters away, lights nearby on a plant, and sometimes they light on the kid!”