DLP Profile
Hall of Fame Nomination
The North Central Washington Dahlia Society nominates Linda DeRooy Holmes-Cook for the Federation Hall of Fame.
Linda was the person who initially and wholeheartedly grabbed our club and led it when joining the Federation. North Central Washington Dahlia Society, with Linda’s father, Tony DeRooy, as one of the charter members and prime movers, had been active in presenting shows in the Wenatchee area for several decades. When Linda started exhibiting her dahlias around 2007, she developed relationships with members of the Federation as she traveled to other shows. Over time she brought back many ideas to share to streamline our show setup and show organization; when she was trying to get judges to come to judge our shows, she saw the value of our club becoming part of the Federation. Those relationships and her becoming our show chairperson vaulted us into another world that evolved from a show with four judges working for four hours to judge fewer than 300 entries to a show with 45 judges evaluating over 1,200 entries in just a couple of hours. Additionally, she was the one to instigate inviting Federation members to present training for our club so NCWDS members would have a better understanding of everything from planting seedlings to taking cuttings. This led our club to begin attending the spring workshops on a regular basis with a retinue of five to eight members. Linda has enthusiastically represented the NCWDS as the Federation Representative since 2011.
Linda’s development of relationships and friendships within the Federation have aided our club and members tremendously. This same development of relationships has brought our membership to over 60, with many living out of the immediate area. Education of members in everything from the structure of the Federation and the American Dahlia Society to the correct way to stage for shows has been of utmost importance in Linda’s development of knowledgeable members in our club. She has led public educational dahlia presentations for Pybus University for several years, even producing a PowerPoint presentation for public education sessions that have become spring and fall traditions for Pybus University instruction.
Linda was instrumental in being one of the members to arrange for our show to be moved from a local mall to Pybus Market, a premier show site in the Northwest. The foot traffic during our show surpasses that of most shows just due to the remarkable location. She and current NCWDS president Mike Cattin, had the vision to see what an old steel mill could become and booked our show as the first event that would be held in the renovated Pybus Market. Linda’s attention to detail and search for expansion of dahlia appreciation is part of what brought about NCWDS’s willingness to locally support the Federation’s bid for the ADS National Show for 2020.
Linda has served as our club President for several terms and club treasurer for additional years; show chair or co-chair for nearly ten years, has been active in planting in the demonstration garden, at her home, and at two other sites in the community. She manages our club auction compiling all the contributions, getting their pictures, and putting together the PowerPoint to aid in the auction presentation. Her professional teacher hat causes her to find new members, advocate for new clubs, and always find ways to include others at whatever level they are comfortable.
While the above-mentioned citations alone would be sufficient to recognize that Linda’s contributions to the dahlia world in the last 15 years are quite remarkable, we would be remiss if we didn’t also remind everyone of her contributions to the ADS as editor of the Bulletin as well as the author of numerous articles. In fact, she was the recipient of the 2021 ADS Gold Medal. In conclusion, Linda Holmes-Cook is a wonderful representative of what a dahlia grower can do from a small community and how that brings the Federation into view across the state and nation. Her dedication and abilities have raised her to a level of involvement of which we are so very proud.