The Citizen
A benefit this weekend will bring back memories of a time and place that older area residents have fond memories of.
The Club Dickman “Come Dance Under the Stars for Cerebral Palsy,” a benefit for national and local cerebral palsy victims, takes place from 7 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, at the Springside Inn, Fleming.
The event hearkens back to days when people danced under the stars at Club Dickman, a greenhouse on Archie Street, from the early 1930s to the early 1960s. Elks organizer Mindy Johnson came up with the idea after sitting with her dad, who remembered the old club.
In 1930, according to a Dickman Farms press release, the Dickman Family, Carl and Herman with their mother, Louise, operated a large vegetable farm, delivering produce throughout Central New York. Carl liked dancing in Lakeside Pavilion at Enna Jettick Park (Emerson Park), where many famous big bands played. He longed to build a greenhouse next to the family farm for year-round dancing.
Eventually a 120-by-50 foot greenhouse was built. By 1933, people crowded its wooden dance floor among window boxes of tropical foliage, Chinese lanterns hanging from the roofs and two giant rubber trees opposite the band stand. People came from all over central New York to fill the greenhouse to its capacity of 500.
While Springside is no greenhouse, Elks organizers are making every effort to recreate the atmosphere by decorating it with plants from Dickmans.
Sponsored by Auburn Lodge of Elks BPOE 474, the event includes hors d'oeuvres, carving stations with sirloin and turkey, a dessert station and a cash bar.
Entertainment by The Rochester Rat Pack will feature Big Band music, including Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin oldies, among others.
Johnson said tickets, at $75 each, can still be purchased. She estimated about 20 percent of the proceeds for this major yearly event, goes to the national cerebral palsy project, while any monies remaining are offered to the Gavras Center and to some individuals needing assistance.
“It all depends on how much we make,” she said.
She described a local cerebral palsy victim, 20 years old, who needs a charitable donation to allow her to be buried at her family gravesite rather than being sent to the pauper's cemetery.
A related event to be held at Dickman Farms Garden Center at 11 a.m. involves 15 people from the community who will design and put together flower containers for judging by Ball Horticultural Company representatives..
A blue ribbon and a $100 Dickman Farms Gift Card will be awarded to the winner.
Those in the decorating competition include: Assemblyman Gary Finch, Tom Lennox, from Lennox Tree Service, Dr. Richard Stankus, Roz McCormick, from Auburn Memorial Hospital, Dr Karin Kroeger, from Family Care Medical Group; Phyllis Allen, from Elks, pharmaceutical sales representative Michelle Kuhfta, Emerson Parks coordinator Michelle Lincoln, Dickman's coordinator Dee Patterson, Mary Moore, Paul Lattimore, Louise Wilson, Tammy Flaherty, Lisa Babiarz and Nancy Purdy..
The designer containers will then be taken to the Springside Inn to be displayed in a silent auction, with proceeds going to the cerebral palsy fund.
The pots will all contain annuals, displayed in colorful, varied pottery, Peggy Dickman, said, estimating their value at about $25 each.
Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net
The Club Dickman “Come Dance Under the Stars for Cerebral Palsy,” a benefit for national and local cerebral palsy victims, takes place from 7 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, at the Springside Inn, Fleming.
The event hearkens back to days when people danced under the stars at Club Dickman, a greenhouse on Archie Street, from the early 1930s to the early 1960s. Elks organizer Mindy Johnson came up with the idea after sitting with her dad, who remembered the old club.
In 1930, according to a Dickman Farms press release, the Dickman Family, Carl and Herman with their mother, Louise, operated a large vegetable farm, delivering produce throughout Central New York. Carl liked dancing in Lakeside Pavilion at Enna Jettick Park (Emerson Park), where many famous big bands played. He longed to build a greenhouse next to the family farm for year-round dancing.
Eventually a 120-by-50 foot greenhouse was built. By 1933, people crowded its wooden dance floor among window boxes of tropical foliage, Chinese lanterns hanging from the roofs and two giant rubber trees opposite the band stand. People came from all over central New York to fill the greenhouse to its capacity of 500.
While Springside is no greenhouse, Elks organizers are making every effort to recreate the atmosphere by decorating it with plants from Dickmans.
Sponsored by Auburn Lodge of Elks BPOE 474, the event includes hors d'oeuvres, carving stations with sirloin and turkey, a dessert station and a cash bar.
Entertainment by The Rochester Rat Pack will feature Big Band music, including Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin oldies, among others.
Johnson said tickets, at $75 each, can still be purchased. She estimated about 20 percent of the proceeds for this major yearly event, goes to the national cerebral palsy project, while any monies remaining are offered to the Gavras Center and to some individuals needing assistance.
“It all depends on how much we make,” she said.
She described a local cerebral palsy victim, 20 years old, who needs a charitable donation to allow her to be buried at her family gravesite rather than being sent to the pauper's cemetery.
A related event to be held at Dickman Farms Garden Center at 11 a.m. involves 15 people from the community who will design and put together flower containers for judging by Ball Horticultural Company representatives..
A blue ribbon and a $100 Dickman Farms Gift Card will be awarded to the winner.
Those in the decorating competition include: Assemblyman Gary Finch, Tom Lennox, from Lennox Tree Service, Dr. Richard Stankus, Roz McCormick, from Auburn Memorial Hospital, Dr Karin Kroeger, from Family Care Medical Group; Phyllis Allen, from Elks, pharmaceutical sales representative Michelle Kuhfta, Emerson Parks coordinator Michelle Lincoln, Dickman's coordinator Dee Patterson, Mary Moore, Paul Lattimore, Louise Wilson, Tammy Flaherty, Lisa Babiarz and Nancy Purdy..
The designer containers will then be taken to the Springside Inn to be displayed in a silent auction, with proceeds going to the cerebral palsy fund.
The pots will all contain annuals, displayed in colorful, varied pottery, Peggy Dickman, said, estimating their value at about $25 each.
Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net
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