More than 28 years ago, the Pine Barrens Festival was established to celebrate the families and towns in the surrounding South Jersey communities. As part of this celebration, each year an individual or group from the town is presented with the Pine Barrens Festival Service Award, and this, the Pinelands Garden Club of Medford received that honor.
“The members of the Pinelands Garden Club are a hardworking group of multi- generational individuals dedicated to protection of the environment, education and community service,” said Janet Giardina, who is on the board of the Garden Club. “They are especially pleased for the recognition of this dedication that the award provides and hope that it increases community awareness of their goals and an interest of working with them as they continue their work.”
Identified for its outstanding volunteer service at Medford’s “Focus On Our Town” event, the night where the town was spotlighted at the festival, the Garden Club was given recognition for all it has done to benefit the community. Included in its endeavors, the club has helped maintain the colonial herb garden and the butterfly garden in Cranberry Park as well as the plantings at the post office. It also teaches children about colonial herb gardens in schools in the fall.
“We got this award for all the work we do quietly in Medford. We were very pleased to be noticed because it’s a lot to maintain those gardens,” the club’s president, Sally Dunn, said. “We are very thankful for the award and to the Medford Town Council for noticing us.”
Formed in 1971 to promote a love of gardening, the club also takes it upon itself to maintain the Pinelands Branch Library display case, plantings at Tomlinson Mill Park and at the Blue Star Highway Veterans Memorial site. Additionally, it hosts Arbor Day with the Medford Township Schools and provides floral therapy for the residents of Medford Care.
Through all of its service to the Medford community, the Pinelands Garden Club of Medford has helped to raise the standards for quality and quantity of volunteer service throughout the community. To make sure the organization attained the recognition it deserved, Medford Town Council nominated the club for this award as it was presented as a discussion item at a meeting in June.
Every year, the Holy Eucharist Church requests council selects an organization to honor at Medford night at the Pine Barrens Festival. This year, the Medford Town Council discussed which organization to nominate when it received the church’s letter requesting a nomination. Mayor Jeffrey Beenstock said what especially stood out about the Pinelands Garden Club were its Arbor Day contribution and its butterfly garden addition to the township.
“We considered the Pinelands Garden Club in previous years but had another nominee, so brought them up again and decided they were certainly worthy of being nominated for their contributions to the community. We agreed at that meeting that we would nominate them,” Beenstock said.
As the Pinelands Garden Club continues to support natural resources and the environment through education, community service and other projects, it is planting the seeds by which the town will be able to further grow and blossom. The club is always looking for new members and meets on the second Monday of each month at 9:30 a.m. at the Medford Leas senior living facility.
For more information visit the club’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Pinelandsgardenclub/.
