A Tradition Turns Twenty

In the autumn of 1992, members of the Garden Club of Indian River County gathered to create a series of Christmas ornaments illustrating Vero Beach icons, with proceeds funding the Garden Club’s many programs. Artist (and Garden Club member) Arun Wijetilleke was entrusted to design the first ornament, the 1903 Vero Beach Railroad Station. She has since designed every annual ornament except one, successfully launching an obsessive group of ornament collectors in the community.

The list of subjects, shown below, reads like a local history book, with this year’s ornament commemorating the 1715 wreck of the Spanish Plate Fleet (left). Many of the people and places that have shaped Vero Beach’s character have been portrayed, leaving one burning question – what next?

Read the entire article in the December 2011 issue