(Photo courtesy/Town of Kinistino)

By Ben Tompkins

Community Spirit

Communities in Bloom judges visit Kinistino

Jul 25, 2022 | 3:11 PM

The Town of Kinistino saw two out-of-province judges visit their community this past weekend on behalf of Communities in Bloom.

Lorna McIlroy of Grande Prairie, Alta. and Linda Tomlinson of Kelowna, B.C. evaluated the community on July 21, 22 and 23.

McIlroy told northeastNOW they were quite impressed with the town and the way all their citizens came together.

“We certainly found it to be an amazing community,” she said. “We liked the appearance and the tidiness of the community, the floral displays and the respect for heritage. I think most of all, we liked the community spirit that we saw as people really work together to make this a great place to live.”

While both have now done their ratings and filed their reports, the town will still have to wait quite a while to know the results.

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The national and international results will be announced in Victoria, B.C. from October 20 to 23, during the National Symposium on Parks and Grounds and the National and International Awards celebrating the ‘Year of the Garden.’

Kinistino is participating in the 28th edition of Communities in Bloom in the Class of Champions Small category and is competing against the village of Pugwash, N.S.

The community is rated from one to five blooms based on the scoring obtained, as they aim to obtain a bronze, silver or gold levels in their 5-Bloom rating.

After winning in 2015, this is the first time Kinistino has taken part in the competition since 2019, as they didn’t participate over the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to McIlroy and Tomlinson, there are a total of six pages they go through when evaluating, which include tidy communities, environmental awareness, heritage, tree management, landscape and plaque and floral displays.

McIlroy added how they hope to see as much of the community as possible, which she believes was definitely achieved.

“We like to see 80 per cent of a community and I would say we saw that and more today. They really showed us everything in their community. We’ve been welcomed with open arms. The ladies that do Communities in Bloom and all their helpers do a wonderful job. We spent the day and a half with the mayor and we learned a lot about the town.”

McIlroy also explained how much support the local Communities in Bloom group got from higher up.

“There’s good cooperation and coordination between the Communities in Bloom committee and the town council. It is so good to see people working together”

The town is looking to win its first national title, which would put them into the Class of Champions category and then the international competition.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8