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Trash out, wildflowers in — Happy Family Women's Club latest to combine community service functions on U.S. 95 in northern Idaho

Club named D1's Adopt-a-Highway Group of the Year at recent Idaho Transportation Board meeting

In April, when The Happy Family Women's Club called to reserve materials for their usual spring cleanup on U.S. 95, they added a new service to drivers – wildflowers. The group was just the latest to add the highway beautification function to the anti-litter efforts they have been involved with for years.

After taking information on their equipment reservation, District 1 Adopt-a-Highway Coordinator Robin Karsann asked if the group would be interested in spreading wildflower seeds in their adopted highway section.

The club has been a program participant since 2005, and in those 11 years, volunteers have collected more than 12 tons of trash from their two-mile stretch on U.S. 95 (milepost 423-425), saving 609 hours of ITD labor.

The group jumped at the chance to add Operation Wildflower to their Adopt-a-Highway efforts.

"Karen (Scott, club secretary) was instantly agreeable and said that she would love to add some colorful beauty to their adopted highway section and a section of road she travels often. She also added that one of their group members was an avid wildflower enthusiast," Karsann said.

That wildflower enthusiast, Vera Veniger (pictured), is president of the club and owner of more than 500 wildflower slides that she and a fellow enthusiast have collected. Together they have identified 150-200 wildflowers present in Kootenai County, and more on her list still to be photographed.

Veniger, 79, got involved with seed mixes when she and her husband owned and operated the Smelterville Feed and Farm Store, and has had a lifelong interest in wildflowers.

"We were heavily involved in the re-vegetation of Bunker Hill, logging operations, the gondola, and worked with custom mix seed for livestock owners," she recalled.

After selling the Smelterville business, Vera went to work for Lilly Miller lawn and garden, organizing wildflower shows and collecting native seeds to be hydro-seeded onto logging areas and sold to other seed companies.

"If Vera could have physically jumped for joy after learning of Operation Wildflower, she would have," Scott said.

Within days of learning of the program, the group came to the District 1 office, picked up wildflower seed, and began spreading it along their highway section. The two-mile stretch of U.S. 95 south of Coeur d'Alene will be blooming with California poppies, western yarrow, blanket flowers, rocky mountain penstemons, and prairie coneflowers with a few more rainfalls and some early summer sunshine.

“It is very encouraging to know that we have so many dedicated volunteers, like Vera, who choose to make a difference – one to two miles at a time,” Karsann explained.