JOKE GETS SERIOUS TO KEEP A SLICE OF ROANOKE BEAUTIFUL

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 11, 1993                   TAG: 9303110468
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-8   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: LYNN A. COYLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
JOKE GETS SERIOUS TO KEEP A SLICE OF ROANOKE BEAUTIFUL
It was a joke, really; just some friends who hung out at the Coffee Pot Barbeque and Grill and kidded each other about being the auxiliary.
Shelia Dooley was jokingly referred to as president.
Then the group decided to do something kind of official.
Roanoke County was looking for a group to tend the triangular garden plot at Brambleton Avenue and Virginia 419. The county had been getting complaints about the plot since the Brambleton Avenue Association, the group that originated the project, disbanded.
Dooley, who works as a permit clerk for the county, was a friend of Lee Garman, the zoning inspector trying to recruit someone to take over the job.
Dooley thought it would be a nice project, and they agreed.
"We decided we wanted to [give] something back to the community other than just sit in a bar," Dooley explained. "After we started doing it, we decided we wanted to have a sign out there, sort of like Adopt-A-Highway, and we wanted the recognition."
So it was official. The Coffee Pot Ladies Auxiliary.
"We have most of our meetings on Fridays . . . after 5 at the Coffee Pot," Dooley said, laughing. The original five - Dooley, Sharon Theede, Lydia Aldrich, Deborah Harrington and Jan Killgore - have been going to the Coffee Pot for about 20 years. The informal group now has about 15 members, including four who joined because of their interest in the garden plot.
"We really have fun doing it, and when people come by and honk we just wave right back," Dooley said. "And I'm going to tell you, that little, itty-bitty patch of ground is bigger than what you think it is."
The Brambleton Avenue Association, whose name is still on the sign, left a pot of money to pay for supplies. The county provides the water and electricity.
"The sign's there. Their money's there. But they are physically not there," Dooley said of the merchants' group. "So we're just doing the labor."
The group took over the project in summer 1991. Last year it planted about 300 perennials and had its name added to the sign.
"What our ultimate goal is for that triangle . . . is for it to continually bloom using perennials" from early spring through late fall, said Dooley, adding that club members may start decorating the sign for holidays.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB