SRC-TJG S.C.R. 26 78(R)   BILL ANALYSIS


Senate Research Center   S.C.R. 26
78R8673 MMS-DBy: Ogden
Administration
3/27/2003
As Filed


DIGEST

The city of Round Rock is following in the footsteps of countless Texas
pioneers by planting daffodils, a perennial American favorite whose vivid
blooms continue to beautify every corner of the state.  In 1994, Allen
Baca, a Round Rock resident and prominent member of its senior community,
approached the town's Senior Citizens Foundation with the idea of
initiating a springtime beautification project; his proposal won
endorsement, and in 1994 and 1995 senior citizens planted numerous
daffodil bulbs throughout the city, chiefly in such public areas as city
rights-of-way, parks, and the grounds of schools and churches.  The
foundation expanded the program in 1996, when it began selling bulbs to
the public as a fund-raiser for programs benefitting the community's older
residents; each year, the foundation makes available approximately 30,000
bulbs for this purpose, and area citizens have taken this compelling cause
to heart, extending the focus of the plantings to residential areas as
well as public spaces.  For the past eight years as well, the foundation
has sponsored the highly popular Daffodil Festival; a family-oriented
event held the first Saturday in March at the downtown Senior Citizens
Center, the festival coincides with the blooming of the daffodils and
celebrates the arrival of spring with food, games, entertainment, and arts
and crafts booths.  The hardy, colorful daffodil is a fitting emblem for
the city of Round Rock, which traces its roots back to the mid-19th
century and the community that grew up around Jacob Harrell's blacksmith
shop on Brushy Creek; the settlers who stopped in Round Rock and at myriad
other points in the Lone Star State were quick to beautify their
surroundings with the durable daffodil, and the progeny of those plants
still bloom around the sites of old homesteads and in the midst of
innumerable country cemeteries.  Through its commitment to its senior
citizens and its ambition to further enhance the attractiveness of this
historic community, the town of Round Rock has embraced the annual
planting of masses of daffodils, and it is appropriate that the affinity
between this fine Central Texas city and this flower beloved by Texans
since colonial days be duly recognized. 

PURPOSE

As proposed, S.C.R. 26 submits the following resolution:

Designates Round Rock as the official Daffodil Capital of Texas.