The Boca Raton Garden Club is using the Boca Raton city seal as the design for its 15th annual holiday ornament
Published November, 20th 2008.
By Dale M. King
CITY EDITOR
The Boca Raton Garden Club has come up with its newest holiday seasonal ornament – the 15th annual creation since it began the project in 1994.
The commemorative brass ornament is a 3-D replica of the Boca Raton city seal.
Mayor Susan Whelchel was one of the first to receive the ornament at a recent City Council meeting. Garden Club member Carol Rice presented it at the opening of the session.
Rice said this year’s ornament “depicts an outer ring featuring the city’s name and two garlands of sea grape leaves. Within the ring, a Spanish galleon cruises the quiet waters of Lake Boca Raton.”
Even though the city was incorporated in 1925, she said, it was not until 1951 that Jim Vandermale created the city seal – and it has been in use since 1978.
“A bronze-colored reproduction of the seal hangs in the council chambers of City Hall and “serves as a reminder of the area’s romantic and mysterious past when Lake Boca Raton was mistakenly rumored to have been a haven for pirates,” Rice said.
“Many Boca Raton residents are collectors of the Garden Club’s yearly ornament,” said Rice. “Each is packaged in a gift box and comes with a brochure detailing its significance.”
She said this year’s ornament and many from past years are available by calling 561-395-6586.
The club’s first ornament was a recreation of Boca Raton’s Old Town Hall, now the headquarters of the Boca Raton Historical Society. In subsequent years, she said, the ornaments included the old FEC train station; Old Betsy, Boca’s first fire engine; the Boca Raton Resort & Club; the Camino Real Bridge over the Intracoastal; Singing Pines, one of the city’s oldest homes that now houses the Children’s Museum; Florida Atlantic University; the Boca Raton Beach Pavilion; the old Boca Raton Inlet Bridge; the Boca Raton Garden Club, in honor of its 50th anniversary in 2003; Gumbo Limbo Nature Center; the Boca Raton Army Air Field, a top secret radar training center during World War II; the Yamato Colony, an early settlement of Japanese pineapple growers in Boca Raton and the Hong Kong Orchid Tree, the official flowering tree of Boca Raton.
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