This wonderful email found its way into my inbox this afternoon. The Southside Community Land Trust in Providence receives national honors from National Garden Clubs and is a 2012 Award of Excellence recipient!! Way to go guys!!!
NATIONAL GARDEN CLUBS INC. ANNOUNCES
2012 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE WINNERS
Winners Hail from Rhode Island, Virginia and Wyoming
ST.
LOUIS (May 22, 2012)—National Garden Clubs Inc. recently announced the
winners of its highest honor: the 2012 Award of Excellence. The winners,
who were recognized at NGC’s annual convention May 19 in Buffalo, N.Y.,
include Southside Community Land Trust of Providence, R.I., Strange’s
Florists, Greenhouses and Garden Centers of Richmond, Va., and Shane
Smith of Cheyenne, Wyo.
“The
Award of Excellence program annually recognizes three truly exceptional
individuals, organizations or institutions that have made significant
contributions to their communities in such areas as environmental and
civic responsibility, conservation, beautification and promoting the
love of gardening,” says Shirley Nicolai, president, National Garden
Clubs. “By recognizing these deserving award recipients from different
parts of the nation, NGC hopes to educate and inspire others in
communities coast-to-coast.” National Garden Clubs Inc. is recognized as
the largest volunteer gardening organization in the world.
Nominated by Rhode Island Federation of Garden Clubs Inc., Southside Community Land Trust, www.southsideclt.org,
is an organization that fosters awareness of urban and sustainable
agriculture programs and provides land, education, tools and support to
encourage people to grow food in Greater Providence. The organization
was selected for the Award of Excellence based on its local efforts to
provide ongoing gardening education and offer comprehensive urban
agriculture programs. Among the many programs offered by Southside
Community Land Trust are 13 neighborhood-based community gardens, a city
farm located in the heart of Providence, and the Urban Edge Farm, a
50-acre business model farm that offers new area farmers a place to make
the transition to commercial agriculture. Southside Community Land
Trust also created an urban agriculture task force that brings together a
coalition of growers, community professionals and environmentalists to
collaborate with community development groups, farmers, chefs,
policymakers and health care professionals to promote practices and
policies that strengthen Providence’s local food systems. Katherine
Brown, executive director, Southside Community Land Trust, accepted the
Award of Excellence from National Garden Clubs Inc.
Nominated by Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs Inc., Strange’s Florists, Greenhouses and Garden Centers, www.stranges.com,
is one of Virginia’s largest greenhouse growers and one of the largest
retail garden centers in the U.S. Strange’s, which has been led by four
generations of the Gouldin family, has been a fixture in the local
Richmond and Virginia business community for 75 years. They are one of
the state’s largest greenhouse growers, as well as one of the largest
retail/grower organizations and garden centers in the U.S., offering a
wide variety of flowering and green plants to gardening enthusiasts as a
viable alternative to “big box” greenhouse retailers. Strange’s offers
to the consumer gardening educational opportunities through in-house
seminars and how-to instructional materials. As a retail florist,
Strange’s is a member of the Florist Transworld Delivery Association and
is consistently ranked in the nation’s top 40 FTD florists for wire
orders. They also support the work of numerous civic and non-profit
organizations through sponsorships and donations of plants and floral
materials, including the Science Museum of Virginia, the Virginia Museum
of Fine Arts and the Virginia Orchid Show. William J. Gouldin, Jr.,
president, Strange’s Florists, Greenhouses and Garden Centers, accepted
the Award of Excellence from National Garden Clubs Inc.
Shane
Smith, who was nominated by Wyoming Federation of Garden Clubs Inc., is
a noted garden author, consultant and the director and founder of the
award-winning Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, www.botanic.org,
Wyoming’s only public botanical garden. This nationally recognized
garden has been lauded for striving to promote the beautification and
enrichment of the High Plains through gardening, volunteerism, education
and stewardship. In the 1970s, Smith’s vision was to create a
non-profit botanic garden and sustainability center in Cheyenne—a city
situated 6,000 feet above sea level renowned for its harsh weather
conditions. As part of this vision, Smith also directed the area’s
efforts to construct one of the nation’s first solar-heated greenhouses
on the site. He also was instrumental in developing the Paul Smith
Children’s Village, the first public children’s garden in the U.S. to
earn a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum
certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Smith is the author of the Greenhouse Gardener’s Companion, the top-selling greenhouse book on
Amazon.com. He serves coast-to-coast and internationally as a guest
lecturer and consultant on greenhouse gardening, community greening,
horticulture therapy and community-based botanic gardens.
Headquartered in St. Louis, National Garden Clubs Inc. (www.gardenclub.org)
is comprised of nearly 190,000 members, 6,000 local clubs, eight
regions, 50 state clubs, a National Capital Area club, and hundreds of
international affiliates. NGC offers members extensive educational
programs on topics of current interest such as plantings for public
spaces, protecting aquatic ecosystems, greening and beautifying the
community, conservation, recycling, floral design, flower shows, garden
therapy, healing gardens and youth programs. Working in partnership with
other organizations, NGC offers several projects, including Habitat for
Humanity Landscaping and Penny Pines. Among NGC’s most nationally
honored projects are the Blue Star Memorial marker program and funding
and support for the Butterfly Garden at the U.S. Botanic Garden.
