2022-2023 — Celia Radek, Chair
Ribbons, rosettes, and silver. This was a very full awards year that included a Flower Show and competitions in Horticulture, Flower Design, and Botanical Arts at monthly meetings. The Club inaugurated a new award in the Botanical Arts Division, joining top point-scored honors in other categories. Thanks to Susan Straten for her gift of the silver bowl for this new award.
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Silver bowl perpetual trophies earned at the Arts & Flowers: A Design Specialty Flower Show were among the Club awards and special tributes presented at the Annual Meeting in May.
The President's Award for Horticulture—Sarah J. Olson
The Amy Hatrak Herb Award—Denise Silverman
The Barbara Meyer Rose Award—Denise Silverman
The Estelle Leibrecht Horticulture Award—Debbie Moran
The Bauer Horticulture Award—Maureen Sprong
The President's Trophy for Flower Design, lntermed.—Sarah J. Olson
The Garden Club Award for Flower Design, Adv.—Barbara Baletti
The Kay Maclane Van Deusen Rose Award—Fran Ackerly
The Betty B. Merriam Silver Bowl—Debbie Moran
The Barbara Slockbower Schaeberle Award—Tova Narrett
The Botanical Arts Award—Floss O'Sullivan
The Till Beatty Allis Award—Fran Ackerly
The Louise D. Mann Award—Deborah Hirsch
Special Tributes—Susan Benner, Marilyn & Peter Zaret
2023 President's Special Recognition Award—Sue Young
Congratulations to the Yearbook Committee and Editor Floss O'Sullivan for the Garden Club of New Jersey Certificate of Merit for Yearbook 2022-23.
Many more GCNJ and NGC Awards are detailed in the report on Arts & Flowers: A Design Specialty Flower Show.
With appreciation to the 2022-23 Awards Committee members: Cynthia Corhan-Aitken, Florence Leyssène, Sarah J. Olson, Maureen Sprong, and Sarah Stransky, ex officio.
2021-2022 — Sarah Stransky, Chair
The Awards Committee is to be applauded for their work on GCM Awards and active participation in National and State Award/Grant applications writing. Many thanks to Cynthia Corhan-Aitken, Sarah Olson, Celia Radek, and Fran Wong. We also appreciated the guidance of the GCNJ Awards Chair, Peggy Morrissey, who helped facilitate our application process.
We are delighted to announce the following GCNJ Awards:
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Certificate of Merit with Gold Seal 1st Place YB-1 Yearbook 2021-22 (100-299 members). Award application by Editor, Claire Stepleton. Score 100%.
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Hanover Garden Club Trophy for outstanding innovative project: Website 2021-22. Award application by Sue Young, 1st Vice President and Website Webmaster, and Sarah Stransky.
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GCNJ Special Award/Large Club for Triangle Gardens (a Civic Beautification project since 1952). Award application by Susan Yu, Triangle Gardens Chair, and Sarah Olson.
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The Garden Club of Montclair Awards were given at the Annual Meeting held at Avis Campbell Gardens on May 25, 2022, with the help of the Properties Chair, Nancy Stroud, Membership Chairs, Deborah Hirsch and Cheryl Slutzky, the Awards Committee, and Marilyn and Peter Zaret, who set up and dismantled chairs and tables for the event. The venue location was revised to be outdoors because of a recent outbreak of COVID-19.
Emeritus Award 2022 - Brenda Bingham. Dedication to GCM, GCNJ, and NGC through focus on flower design since 1975.
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Tribute 2022 - Sue Young. Webmaster/renovator of current website.
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The Till Beatty Allis Award 2022 – Floss O’Sullivan. Flower Design Education through the creation of virtual workshops and exhibitions.
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The Louise D. Mann Award 2022 - Sarah Olson. Garden Therapy development and expansion of programs involving many more Members and reaching out to more people facing personal challenges in our communities.
2020-2021 — Sarah Stransky, Chair
Many thanks to the 2020-21 Awards Committee including Cynthia Corhan-Aitken, Karen Kadus, Kate Khachaturian, Michele Tomasik, and Fran Wong for their Zoom input, and collection and cleaning of the silver awards.
Special thanks to Michele Tomasik for her assistance writing and editing several of the Emeritus and Tribute Awards.
We also appreciate the support of GCNJ Awards Chair, Peggy Morrissey, whose guidance facilitated our state and national award application processes.
We are thrilled to announce these GCNJ and NGC Awards received in June 2021 for outstanding achievements in 2020 during the pandemic:
Yearbook 2020-21 — Award application by Celia Radek, Editor. Score 100%.
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Certificate of Commendation First Place YB-1 Yearbooks (100-299 members) awarded by National Garden Clubs, Inc.
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Certificate of Merit with Gold Seal YB-1 Yearbooks (100-299 members) awarded by Garden Club of New Jersey.
Virtual Flower Design Education 2021 — Award application by Workshop Chair, Floss O'Sullivan, Florence Leyssène, and Sarah Stransky.
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Certificate of Merit First Place and Overall Winner Award FD-2 (Aiv)
Floral Design Program/Single Club awarded by National Garden Clubs, Inc.
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Garden Therapy 2021 — Award application by Garden Therapy Chair, Sarah Olson, and Sarah Stransky.
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Myra Brooks Garden Therapy Trophy #15a Renovated Garden Therapy Program awarded by the Garden Club of New Jersey.
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The Garden Club of Montclair Awards were given at the 2020-21 Annual Meeting held in Avis Campbell Gardens on May 26 with the help of the Hospitality, Properties, Membership, and Avis Campbell Gardens Committees. A celebration for Connie Young’s 100 birthday was an important part of the agenda!
The Bauer Horticulture Award 2021 — Debbie Moran
The Louise D. Mann Award 2021 — Floss O’Sullivan
The Till Beatty Allis Award 2021 — Florence Leyssène
Tributes — Cynthia Corhan-Aitken, Sandy Sorkin, Karen Whitehaus, Fran Wong
Emeritus Award Members 2021 — Bonni Babson, Betty Ann Cannell, Chris Cowles, Firth Fabend, Joan
Larkin, Mary McGeown, Fritzi Mills, C.Y. Treene.
2019-2020 — Sarah Stransky, Chair
The 2019-2020 Awards Program, held annually in May, was postponed until fall of 2020. Because we have chosen to honor the recipients in a timely fashion, it is with great pleasure that we announce the following 2019-2020 awards:
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The President's Award for Horticulture — Denise Silverman
The Amy Hatrak Herb Award — Denise Silverman
The Bauer Horticulture Award — Maureen Sprong
The Elsie Bristol Novice Award — Ginny Demoreuille
The Garden Club Award for Flower Design, Advanced — Fran Ackerly
The Kay Maclane Van Deusen Rose Award — Sarah J. Olson
The Louise D. Mann Award — Claire Stepleton
Special Tributes — Sarah J. Olson and Floss O'Sullivan
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All Awards will be presented at the Awards Program in the fall of 2020. The Awards Committee congratulates the above listed, and all our members, as you further our purposes of Education, Beautification, and Fellowship!
And a big Thank You to the 2019-2020 members of the Awards Committee: Fran Ackerly, Karen Kadus, Kate Khachaturian, and Michele Tomasik.