Burlington Garden Club and Rutland Garden Club receive Distinguished Achievement Awards from the New England Garden Clubs
Linda Lane - BGC Co-President; Suzanne McCance - New England Garden Clubs Director; Barbara Gaida - BGC Co-President; Jo Fretz - Federated Garden Clubs of Vermont President
The New England Garden Clubs recently recognized the outstanding club contributions of two Vermont garden clubs for promoting the love of gardening, floral design, and civic and environmental responsibility. Awards were presented to The Burlington Garden Club for their work in garden therapy, community garden beautification and growing young gardeners’ programs and the Rutland Garden Club for their outstanding container garden display. Awards were given at the Fall Meeting of the New England Garden Clubs held in Nashua, New Hampshire by the awards region chairperson Vera Bowen of Rhode Island.
The Burlington Garden Club received The Sears Beautification Award for diligent care of three gardens in the greater Burlington community. The gardens are Vermont Garden Park in South Burlington which includes the “All American Garden”, “The Cottage Garden”, “Grandma and Grandpa Garden”, Ronald MacDonald House Gardens and Hope Lodge Gardens, both in Burlington. Cultivating and displaying the flower gardens produce visual and aromatic enjoyment, providing visitors with a serene and relaxing environment to appreciate blooms and pollinators.
The second award, The Mary Stone Garden Therapy Award was presented to the club for the unwavering work of club members during the winter pandemic: “For making the residents of Birchwood Nursing Home smile”, by delivering ninety (90) floral arrangements for the resident’s rooms, stated Karen Villanti project chairperson. Of notable interest and gratitude is Mary Stone’s daughter (Gail Lang) who is a long-time member of the Burlington Garden Club
Pam Hebert - past president FGCV, Susan Hinkel past Director New England Regional Garden Clubs and past president FGCV, Doris Van Mullen past president Burlington Garden Club and VP FGCV, Linda Lane, Barbara Gaida, co-presidents Burlington Garden Club, and Jo Fretz president FGCV
The third award, The Pamela C. Hebert Garden of Youth Award: “Designated for club members to work with children. This award involves a beautification and youth educational project, it is a continuance of the Unified Project 2005-2007 “Sprouts”. The greatest gift we can give our children is our time, so together we can continue to encourage our children to stop - look - and learn. Barbara Gaida and Linda Long co-presidents were present to receive the awards.
The Rutland Garden Club was recognized as the recipient of The Joyce A. Kimball Container Gardening Award for the most outstanding container garden display for a public space. This amazing project beautified the streets of Rutland with seasonal containers. Jo Fretz, president of the Federated Garden Clubs of Vermont, received the award.
The six New England states in the annual competition for outstanding work in their respective states were: Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island. and Vermont.