McNally’s Irish Pub in downtown St. Charles went with a geranium floral theme outside the establishment for the 2018 America in Bloom competition. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

Competing in the national America in Bloom contest has become a tradition for St. Charles. So has winning the annual beautification competition.

But for the Kane County community, a defending America in Bloom national champion, participating is no longer just about updating gardens or competing against neighboring communities.

It’s about changing the way their community thinks and how to make it better.

So far, local organizers are seeing positive changes. So are contest judges.

“They are very, very thorough (in the evaluation) and their intention is for us to become a better community,” said Fifth Ward Ald. Maureen Lewis

St. Charles, 2017 champion in the 25,000-to-50,000 population category, welcomed America in Bloom judges for the fifth consecutive year earlier this month.

America in Bloom judges cover seven areas of evaluation: flowers, landscaped areas, urban forestry, environmental efforts, celebrating heritage, community vitality and overall impression.

For the six main categories, they are then evaluated in four sectors: municipal, commercial, residential and community involvement. So, this isn’t just a simple flower competition.

This year St. Charles focused on improving downtown area recycling. In December, they created a holiday lights recycling program for residents to drop off broken lights instead of throwing them away. That program saved over 1,000 pounds of lights from going into a landfill.

They also improved signage around the city and performed additional landscaping. New floral containers were installed and organizers worked with volunteers to improve the beauty of the city one step at a time.

Lewis said people are realizing that little changes can really make a difference and that they too can help.

“I saw an area I wasn’t real happy with and I thought ‘oh, I gotta call Public Works and get them to come out here and weed that,’” she said. “And then I said ‘no, I don’t. I can go pull those weeds myself,’ and so that’s what my husband and I did.”

St. Charles is not the only western suburb competing in 2018.

West Chicago will participate for the first time, looking to beautify their city and stating in a press release that their downtown “has never looked better!”

Their judges arrive on July 25th.

For St. Charles, planning begins the previous October at an America in Bloom Symposium and Awards where communities are given an evaluation from the judges.

“Right then and there, we start, in October,” Lewis said. “What are we gonna do for next year and take some of their suggestions.”

Some ideas from last year included improving the city recycling, updating signage and cleaning up some of the ordinances.

From there the work begins with their six committees for America in Bloom to plan for the upcoming year and involve the community as much as possible.

This year, the Award Celebration will be held from Sept. 27-29 in Lexington, Ky.

St. Charles will then host the 2019 America in Bloom Symposium and Award Celebration which will bring over 300 people to the city in the first week of October.

To learn more about America in Bloom, visit their website at AmericainBloom.org.