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closeWindmill Gardens hosts its first summer Girls’ Night Out
Roxanne Cooke
The popularity of the spring Girls’ Night Out event at Windmill Gardens has spawned summer and fall events of the same variety. The new summer event was hosted last Friday.
Because summer is a slower time for the Windmill in general, having a summer Girls’ Night Out event made sense, said Ben DeGoede, general manager. The event also provided an opportunity to show off the new Windmill Bistro and summer plants.
“The garden is looking so nice, so we kind of wanted to celebrate that,” he said.
The spring event was sold out this year with approximately 500 attendees. Summer didn’t sell out, but about 400 women attended. The fall event, to be hosted in November, will give the Windmill a chance to show off its holiday lighting, décor and gifts.
The goal is to have each event benefit a local organization, DeGoede said. The summer event helped support Northwest Trek.
“It’s always tied in with some charity or local group,” he said.
Stafford Suites is another partner, helping out with parking. Windmill’s parking lot is limited, so many guests park on the street nearby. With the Stafford Suites shuttles, event-goers could park a few blocks away and hop on the shuttle for a free ride.
At $30 per ticket or $35 at the door, women who attended found retail discounts at Windmill stores, several vendors, complimentary wine and champagne, hors d’oeuvres and door prizes.
Sumner resident Barbara Skinner attended the event for the first time with two Puyallup friends. The three stood in the nursery around 7:30 p.m. eating hors d’oeuvres.
“The food is amazing,” Skinner said.
Her friends, Ruth Camp and Ardith DeRaad, were also enjoying themselves.
“It was worth the drive,” DeRaad said.
“It’s beautifully organized,” Camp added.
Inside Tea Madame, Jordi Daley from Federal Way admired a set of tea cups patterned with roses. She was attending the event and Windmill Gardens for the first time.
“I think it’s great,” she said. “The weather cooperated.”
Daley said she had her eye on a basket of pink petunias while shopping with a friend from Pacific. She’ll probably come back to the Windmill.
As an administrative assistant who has helped plan a number of events, Daley said she was impressed at the Windmill’s wide variety of inventory, from gardening goods to furniture.
“It’s almost staggering,” she said. “Something for everyone.”
Elsewhere at the Windmill during Girls’ Night Out, Beth Masura tried the money booth for the third time. For $10, she strapped on a fanny pack and climbed inside a clear box filled with pink slips, each representing an amount of money. For several seconds, the slips were blown around inside the box, and Masura did her best to fill the fanny pack.
She gathered $56.50 worth of slips. Her total over three tries was $180. That pretend money will give her up to 50 percent off of any item in the nursery, depending on the cost.
Masura said this was her first time to a Girls’ Night Out event at the Windmill, but she plans to try it out again.
“I came just to hang out,” she said. “It’s been fun.”