Lewes wins national America in Bloom awards

Top honors for the prestigious 2021 America in Bloom National Awards Program were announced during its recent virtual educational conference and awards celebration.

Lewes was the winner of the Best Youth Gardening Program Award and the Best Dog Park Award. Awards were presented that reflect excellence in the areas of community vitality, floral displays, landscaped areas, urban forestry, environmental efforts, celebration of heritage, overall impression and community involvement.

“America in Bloom is helping communities of all sizes achieve their potential. Every year our participants raise the bar, and the accomplishments and progress shown by this year’s group is remarkable,” said Laura Kunkle, executive director, America in Bloom. “Congratulations to Lewes for the excellent work making your community more beautiful and vibrant.”

To date, nearly 280 communities from 43 states have participated in the program and more than 22 million people have been touched by it.

Cape Gazette October 12, 2021

 

Text by Nancy H. Phillips.

The Children’s Learning Garden had a very successful sixth season in 2018. We had record breaking attendance at our events. The garden was well maintained again this year by our CLG patrons. Thank you Kathleen Merlo, Nancy Palladino, Sue Parks, Dianne Stevens, Theresa DeTemple, Deb Cebula, and JoAnn DeMarco for keeping our garden looking great. A huge thank you to Cindy De Emedio and Theresa DeTemple for serving as co-chairs for our volunteers for the Friday and Monday events. Thank you Siobhan Duggan, Nancy Curry, Brent Marsh, Dianne Stevens, and Maureen Miller for being our presenters again this year. Thank you Lewes Beekeeping Club for teaching the children and their parents the importance of honey bees. Thank you Jennifer Noonan for presenting our garden inspired story hour each Monday. Jennifer and Nancy Phillips established the StoryWalk in Stango Park this season. The children and their families enjoyed walking and reading two different stories. A huge thank you to all our committee members who attended our monthly meetings and helped at our events.

 

Text by Linda Rancourt. Photos by Sue Sandmeyer.

More than 30 children and their parents learned about the importance of honey bees during a program in June at the Children’s Learning Garden. During the presentation by Pam Meador, LIB Board of Advisors member and a member of the Lewes Beekeeping Club, they learned about the differences between humans and bees, had a chance to gather pollen with the aid of cotton swabs, and joined in a dance designed to simulate one method honey bees use to communicate the location of pollen to their hive mates.

The children also enjoyed exploring an observation hive provided by the club and were treated to a taste of the club’s honey at the end of the program. Pam donned a bee costume for the presentation and was assisted by other members of the club along with the Children’s Learning Garden patrons.

The Cape Gazette carried an article about the program in its July 10 edition, the same day that the Lewes Beekeeping Club gave a presentation to Lewes in Bloom members.

 

 

The first Children’s Learning Garden Story Hour of the season was held recently attended by 45 children accompanied by 24 adults. In addition to stories read by the Lewes Library Children’s Librarian and the visit to the garden to see what was ready to pick, the new Story Walk in Stango Park was introduced.

Story Walk is a concept created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Kellogg Hubbard Library. The Story Walk is becoming popular in towns across the country, and now Lewes has its own in Stango Park. The first book selected is I’m a Seed written by Jean Marzolla with illustrations by Judith Moffat. This book will be displayed through July. A new book will be set up in August.

Starting at the Lewes Library and winding its way through Stango Park, there are boards, one for each page of the book. To introduce the Story Walk, Miss Jennifer, the Children’s Librarian created a game. Children were given a group of pictures and they had to find each picture as they walked through the story boards. As the children went from board to board, they noted where the pictures were found. At the end they were encouraged to turn in their papers for a drawing at a later time.

After the children completed their Story Walk adventure, Miss Jennifer then read two books. This was followed by a trip to the Children’s Learning Garden where the children picked the current crop – radishes. As the children were leaving, each was given a seed packet for either vegetables or flowers to plant at home.

Story Hour will be held on Mondays until August 27 at 10:30 AM by the Children’s Learning Garden in Stango Park. The Story Walk is always on display and children can pick up their papers for the ‘scavenger hunt’ at the first story board inside the gate next to the children’s library area.

On a sunny but chilly Friday, April 27th 5 children from Miss Anna Lockerman’s 4/5 grade class at the

Lewes After School Program help plant the first batch of crops in the Children’s Learning Garden.

They planted parsley, carrots, potatoes, green beans, lettuce, onions and sunflowers.

Text by Nancy Phillips & Photos by Fred Phillips

The Children’s Learning Garden kicked off its 2017 season on May 30, with a thank you celebration to Maureen Miller, Lewes Children’s Librarian. Maureen retired on June 15. She has presented a garden inspired story hour every week since the inception of our garden in 2013. The children and their families enjoyed strawberries topped with Cool-Whip. The committee presented Maureen with a Lenox vase. Jennifer Noonan will be the new Children’s Librarian and will continue to present story hours every Monday at 10:30 a.m.

Brent Marsh, a Sussex Master Gardener, presented his “Peter Rabbit’s Misadventures in Farmer McGregor’s Garden” on Friday, June 23rd. Children learned all about vegetables and what insects live in the garden.

Siohban Duggan and LIB volunteers presented “Fairies and Gnomes” on June 30th. Children made a Fairy and Gnome garden in our CLG garden and participated in Arts and Crafts activities.

      

Our popular “Lady Bug Day” was on July 21th. Dianne Stevens, an LIB member, lead cooking in the garden on July 28th.

August programs were fun filled as well. Sue Everitt, an LIB member, presented a program about “Pollinators” on Aug. 11th. Maureen Miller will present a program about “Butterflies” on Aug. 18th.

All our programs are listed on our website, Facebook, and in the Cape Gazette. Come visit our garden to see what’s growing.