Flower show on Long Island - Great Opportunity for all!

**M* <m*@optonline.net>**

Today I had lunch with Vivian Passuello, who is in charge of the Hofstra
Flower and Garden Show on Long Island.

The 4th annual show will be held on April 15th, 16th and 17th here at
Hofstra University, Uniondale LI. The University is not far from the NY City
Queens border and right next to the Nassau Coliseum. It is held in their
new, state of the art, sports arena. A huge building, 2 levels, with ample
parking and a food court.

For two of the three past shows I designed and installed a 30' X 50'
children's interactive garden. As of today it's been decided that there will
be another children's garden in 2005.

I've been part of the planning committee for this show since before it's
actual beginning and have been given quite a bit of lee-way with my
exhibits. This years exhibit will be geared towards teens. The garden will
have a miniature football field with Marching Band Scarecrows in formation
on it. There will be a scoreboard and a tree house/press box. We're hoping
to find a car dealer who will let us showcase a small SUV or hatchback as
part of a tailgate display.

There are still openings for vendors at ridiculously low prices plus Vivian
has allowed me to have two more sites. One for Plant a Row for the Hungry
and one for GWA members who want to sign & sell their books. These booths
are at no cost to us. The PAR and GWA booth could be next to each other and
back up against the children's garden which is already bordered by a top of
the line vinyl picket fence.

I am willing to do the design for the PAR garden, Hofstra (with the
sponsorship of Lowes) can get us most of the materials to build an exhibit.
What I'd like to know is if anybody out there is interested in working on
this in any aspect. Maybe you have a book you'd like to promote (the more
the merrier!), maybe you have a great garden tool you'd like to incorporate
into the PAR garden.

At the present time there is no book seller of any sort contracted to be in
the show so there will be no rules against book sales nor any competition. I
plan on self publishing a book on children and family gardens and selling it
there. 50% of the profits from the book will go to the Walt Whitman High
School marching band which is in my own school district and is facing the
serious possibility of being cut completely from the school budget.

This could really be great and I know there's lots of people in the Tri
State area that could rev things up here. If anybody knows who the local PAR
rep is, please let me know. Also, if there's a local nursery that works with
PAR maybe I can get them to donate some plants for the exhibit.

Any questions or interest, please flood my mail box at:
melaniev@optonline.net
You can also contact Vivian Passuello at Hofstra directly if you are
interested in your own vending location at vivian.i.passuello@hofstra.edu

Hope to hear from you soon,
Melanie Vassallo
Garden Lecturer/Writer/Photographer
melaniev@optonline.net
Look for my work in "The Daylily" due out any day from Timber Press

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