During an Arbor Day celebration on December 4, the Town of Iva applauded its designation as a Tree City USA for the 38th time and honored two longtime residents for their 30 years of service, each, to the town’s Shamrock Garden Club.
With an ongoing commitment to beautify the community, enhance the economic vitality of business in the town and increase property values in the city, Iva has planted several trees this year, including a Green Giant tree donated by Charlies Creek Nursery that is serving as the town’s official Christmas tree.
Iva’s 2020 Tree City USA designation gives it more of the annual Arbor Day Foundation designations than any South Carolina city or town, said Iva Clerk to Council Tim Taylor.
But the event’s loudest applause was reserved for longtime Iva residents Sue Butler and Dot Terry who listened as Taylor read a letter from Iva Mayor Bobby Gentry thanking each of the women for their three decades of volunteer service to the community.
“Sue Butler and Dot Terry are examples of true dedication and commitment,” the letter said. “They have dedicated themselves to local civic service and have proudly represented the Iva community in various ways by doing so. I, along with the town council and the citizens of Iva, thank Sue and Dot for sharing their talents and individual gifts from floral design to proper etiquette with the Iva community. Their many years of service have contributed to the strength of our town.”
To honor the women – particularly their service to Iva’s Shamrock Garden Club, the town dedicated a new bench bearing their names that will be placed near the town’s gazebo.
A lifelong resident of Iva, Butler said that her years of community service have been an effort to leave the world a better place.
“It just gives you a wonderful feeling,” she said. “People seem to appreciate it so much – anything that beautifies Iva.”
For Terry, it was an invitation from her sister-in-law that initially led to her involvement in the Shamrock Garden Club.
“My sister-in-law invited me not long after we moved here from Greenville County, and I just got interested in the little town,” Terry said. “I’ve loved it from the time I got here and wanted to be a part of helping improve it.”
