BENTONVILLE — Volunteers and guests dined on breakfast fare and looked out on a wintry landscape, but the talk was about spring and new growth that will usher in the season.
Brent and Becky’s Bulbs of Virginia donated 5,000 tulip bulbs and 2,800 daff odils for the Peel Mansion and Historic Gardens, guests at a Wednesday event were told.
Volunteers for Peel Mansion and Compton Gardens & Conference Center were welcomed back with a morning social. The activity was in advance of the Peel Mansion reopening for the season on March 1. Following the program, the volunteers - who were preview guests for an attic sale conducted in the mansion’s Carriage House - were allowed to browse through the many off erings early. The sale opened to the public Wednesday afternoon and was expected to continue through Saturday.
Connie Hendrix-Kral, executive director of the Peel Compton Foundation, said some of the volunteers for the two properties were meeting each other for the first time Wednesday.
Board members and longtime donors also were invited to the catered breakfast. Custom Catering’s Donna Welsh served coff ee cake with sour cream, cream cheese and apricots, pumpkin chocolate mini-muft ns, coconut bananas and eggs based on a recipe from a former Governor’s Mansionstaff member - Miss Lila’s Famous Baked Eggs.
Each volunteer was presented with a volunteer handbook, a new publication detailing the kinds of volunteer assignments available, and a copy of the anniversary commemorative brochure, “Celebrating the First 20,” which gives an overview of the lives of Col. Samuel Peel and Dr. Neil Compton. The brochure includes a timeline that shows Walmart announcing the purchase and donation of the Peel Mansion to a nonprofi t foundation (the Peel House Foundation) on Dec. 2, 1991.
Ann Pestel, one of the longtime volunteers attending the event, remembered early on how individuals associated with the Peel Mansion restoration worked to borrow or acquire furnishings. “It was a new experience for all of us,” she said.
Now, both properties are among what Hendrix-Kral said she hopes people will list among the 10 best reasons to live in Bentonville.
Amber Rice, whose responsibilities with the foundation include coordinating the schedules of volunteers, stressed her gratitude to them. Their contributions are essential to the success of Peel Mansion and Compton Gardens, she said.
WEB WATCH THE PEEL COMPTON FOUNDATION www.peelcompton.org
Our Town, Pages 8 on 02/20/2011