Bothwell Middle School seventh grade students, left to right, Lucas Belkowski, Brady Quinnell and Brody Lemire plant flowers on Friday afternoon along South Front Street as part of this year’s Petunia Pandemonium. Community planting was to continue today. (Diary photo by Christie Mastric)

MARQUETTE – The south door of Marquette has already become a little brighter.

Local youth on Friday kicked off the 33rd Annual Petunia Pandemonium, hosted by the Marquette Beautification & Restoration Committee, Inc., along South Front Street.

Barb Kelly, President of Petunia Pandemonium, helped guide the youth, which included seventh grade students from Bothwell Middle School who worked along the South Front as well as 4 and 5 year olds from Marquette Hope, who planted flowers in Father Marquette Park.

And there were many types of flowers that, if all goes according to plan, will adorn the area this summer because of the event. According to Kelly, they include dusty suckers, petunias, cosmos, sage, new varieties of grass, chartreuse coleus, sweet potato vines, lobularia, impatiens and others.

It was probably a lot of fun for the middle school kids to get out of the classroom on a sunny day, but Petunia Pandemonium probably had a bigger goal for them.

“Planting is a fairly simple digging process”, Kelly said, but noted that it also comes with the satisfaction of seeing plants grow and that kids of all ages realize that there is something they can do for their community that makes people happy.

In fact, everyone who walks into Marquette sees the flowers, she said.

“People plan their weddings around this,” Kelly said of Petunia Pandemonium. “They will call me and say, ‘When are the petunias going this year?'”

The youths of Bothwell adapted what they had learned from Kelly’s speech and, armed with their trowels and water bottles, got to work planting the flowers in the ground.

“It’s great to plant flowers” said Lucas Belkowski, a student from Bothwell, who noted that the activity would be part of his efforts for the National Junior Honor Society.

CRBM does not plan to drive Petunia Pandemonium in 2022 due to planned road works on the southern front, but it has yet to raise funds to replace the water supply system which will be largely destroyed during the road project.

The committee plans to host its famous garden tour this summer, but tax-deductible contributions supporting the committee’s efforts can also be mailed to MBRC, PO Box 334, Marquette, MI 49855, or given to mqtbeautification. org.

Petunia Pandemonium was to continue today with the community involved in planting flowers.

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. His email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.