From the Greenville Advocate - July 31, 2007
Last week was the 77th annual convention of The Ohio Association of Garden
Clubs, Inc., where two members of the Butterflies Junior Garden Club were
honored for their hard work and dedication.

Karlee Lennen accepts numerous awards from Kim Cromwell, State
Junior Chairperson at the 77th annual OAGC convention.

Karlee Lennen won numerous awards in the horticulture and artistic flower show at the convention.  The Award was presented by Kim Cromwell, State Junior Chair. 
Stephanie Cech won the prestigious Reed Award for   
her study of birds and the Regional Junior Amateur Gardener Award.
Brittany Bowers was presented the Typical Junior Gardener Award.

Louise Sheffer started 7 garden clubs during her term as regional director
for the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs.  Now, in the third and fourth
generations of her family, garden club still remains a very important part
of our lives.

Mother has given us a lot of knowledge on gardening, nature and brings out
the creative ability in all of us.  Not only members of her family, but she
has encouraged and promoted arranging skills to many gardening friends.
Mother still loves to see the beauty of the outdoors and she likes hearing
about everyone's creative abilities,

She's always asking about the Butterflies Junior Garden Club, which was
started in 1984.
To look over the program book for the club, it lists over 79 state honors
from members of the club since 1987.    In 2002, two energetic members of
the club exhibited over 100 entries in the horticulture show at The Ohio
Association of Garden Clubs annual convention.

The juniors motto is,  "As a junior gardener, I promise to do all in my
power to take care of our trees, flowers, and birds, and to watch for
opportunities to make and to keep our community clean and beautiful".  Their
slogan is to "make the world better by helping to make it more beautiful".

Recently an article appeared in the quarterly official publication of OAGC's
magazine called The Garden Path.  State Flower Show Chairperson, Nancy Annis
wrote an article entitled Include Juniors in Your Flower Show!  Nancy wrote,
"While the Junior Division in a flower show does not represent many points
on a flower show contest scorecard, it can make a huge difference in the
quality of the show.  County Fair flower shows receive only 7 points for
including a Junior Division.  Some members may say, "Whew!  This is a
relief!"  But the value is actually much higher as these junior gardeners
are our future gardeners!

Nancy continues, "To see an outstanding junior show, visit the Darke County
Fair Flower Show in Greenville, OH.   Their Junior Division is bigger and
better than many adult shows in the state.  Their juniors are encouraged to
do more than is ordinarily expected and seem to have great fun creating
table pictures, tea tables, and still life's.  Not many of the state's
flower shows includes these classes and not many generate the level of
enthusiasm that these juniors bring to the show."

She states, "The Darke County junior garden club leaders are constantly
teaching good ideas and horticulture practices.  Let us all join their
effort in teaching our juniors to enjoy Knowing, Growing, Showing and
Sharing gardening and design skills."

A note was sent to the state chair to thank her for her kind comments about
the Darke County fair flower show.  She replied the Darke County junior
division is an inspiration to all of us!

Last week was the 77th annual convention of The Ohio Association of Garden
Clubs, Inc., where two members of the Butterflies Junior Garden Club were
honored for their hard work and dedication.

Karlee Lennen won numerous awards in the horticulture and artistic flower
show at the convention.  Stephanie Cech won the prestigious Reed Award for
her study of birds and the Regional Junior Amateur Gardener Award. Brittany
Bowers was presented the Typical Junior Gardener Award.

Adila Essak and Sara Cromwell won Award of Merit in the 2007 Convention
Junior contest for dragonfly seed mosaics and decorated gardening apron.

Recently, we experienced a health situation in my life.  It was my prayer
that God would give me healing health to love my family and continue to keep
working with these youngsters and future juniors, to share more time with
young kids and continue what my Mom has taught me in making a difference in
young peoples lives.  We can expect many more years as a junior leader.