{"id":5007,"date":"2018-12-21T12:32:51","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T17:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?p=5007"},"modified":"2018-12-21T12:32:51","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T17:32:51","slug":"local-resident-chosen-decorate-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/local-resident-chosen-decorate-white-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Local resident chosen to decorate White House"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Martie Thompson
\n<\/span>editor@floridanewsline.com<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This past holiday season, St. Johns resident Reisha Rust marked an item off her bucket list \u2014 for the third time. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt has always been a dream of mine to help decorate the White House for Christmas,\u201d Rust said. \u201cMy sister, a freelance florist, and I are known as \u2018repeat offenders\u2019 because we have been selected to volunteer for this three times.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rust said she grew up in the floral industry, as her grandmother and then her mother ran a flower shop in Texas that has now been in business for more than 65 years. She said she was put to work in the flower shop at a young age, but after college, she didn\u2019t continue in the business. <\/span><\/p>\n

Four years ago she and her sister, Mandy Barkley, applied in July to be volunteers for the White House Christmas decorating and they were selected in late October. They returned again most recently for the 2018 season. Rust said that she was in Washington D.C. for about 10 days, including before, during and after Thanksgiving Day. The last day the volunteers are invited to a big party to celebrate their efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n

About 120 volunteers from all over the country work first in the warehouse, prepping the decorations, and then work in the White House to bring the visions of the First Lady and the White House design team to life. Rust said that while new decorations are added each year, the White House staff goes to great lengths to try to reuse ornaments from year to year in different rooms and combinations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was the co-leader of the decorations in the Green Room this year,\u201d Rust said. \u201cThis included the decorations on the mantle, the tree and the wreaths. I also made one of the \u2018Be Best\u2019 pencil wreaths in the Red Room.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She was excited this year to learn from \u201cCranberry Jenny,\u201d a volunteer who for 20 years has been responsible for making the fresh cranberry trees, which have been a White House tradition since 1975. These four 24\u201d trees require the artist to attach 1,000 fresh cranberries to each in painstaking fashion, a process which takes about 10 hours per tree. Since the cranberries are fresh, Rust said the trees have to be remade two weeks later and she pointed out that these trees are not to be confused with the red topiary trees in the East Colonnade that were in the news.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rust said her favorite part of the experience was the camaraderie of the volunteers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like summer camp for people who love Christmas,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of hard work, but we all bond together. Everyone is truly excited to be there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So, will she apply to volunteer again? Rust, who said Christmas is her favorite season and admits to playing Christmas music in November, is unsure. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to go again, but it\u2019s hard to be away from your family for Thanksgiving, so I\u2019m still undecided about next year,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo courtesy Reisha Rust<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Reisha Rust and daughter Delaney Rust.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Martie Thompson editor@floridanewsline.com This past holiday season, St. Johns resident Reisha Rust marked an item off her bucket list \u2014 for the third time. \u201cIt has always been a dream of mine to help decorate the White House for Christmas,\u201d Rust said. \u201cMy sister, a freelance florist, and I are known as \u2018repeat offenders\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-creekline-st-johns"},"yoast_head":"\nLocal resident chosen to decorate White House - Florida NewsLine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CreekLineBy Martie Thompson editor@floridanewsline.com This past holiday season, St. Johns resident Reisha Rust marked an item off her bucket list \u2014 for the third\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/local-resident-chosen-decorate-white-house\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Local resident chosen to decorate White House - 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