Youth Committee Chair 2023-2024: Jeannette Michelson
Youth Garden Club
The Youth Garden Club meets several times a year from October through May with children from the community at the Ocean County Library in Surf City. Children in grades three to six are welcome to attend. Garden Club members instruct the children in gardening techniques, flower arranging and environmental topics that are especially relevant to coastal areas. The activities vary by season and holidays but fun is always included!
Bloom in Art! May 2023
Graphic Design by Tracey Cameron/Photos by Jeannette Michelson (Click on photos to enlarge.)
The Process
The Youth Committee met on Wednesday May 17, 2023 at the Surf City Library for the last time this school season. A very special project was planned for the grades 3-6 participants. First, chair Jeannette MIchelson, co-chair Ginny Scarlatelli and member Paula Cofone lead the group in designing a floral arrangement. At past meetings the students were presented with an example design. On Wednesday they were given greens and an assortment of flowers including sunflowers, asters, daisies and proteus. They were free to design any arrangement they wanted. Some designs were compact while others were tall. Each was unique.
What followed was different from any previous project . With a nod to the Garden Club’s Art in Bloom event the next day , the children were charged with painting an original watercolor of their floral design. The students were then given a watercolor set, a brush and paper. Gillian Rozicer, the club’s Publicity chair and former Art teacher, guided the group through the intricacies of creating with watercolors. As you can see from the photos below, the results were impressive. Photos of the children, their arrangement and painting, were included for display at the the Garden Clubs’s “Art in Bloom” the next day.
The Results
Happy Earth Day! April 2023
Graphic Design by Tracey Cameron/ Photos by Jeannette Michelson
The Youth Garden Club met on Wednesday April 19, 2023 at the Ocean County Library- Surf City branch to create a project in honor of EarthDay. The group was led by committee chair Jeannette Michelson, co-chair Ginny Scarlatelli and member Paula Cofone. The 3-6th graders decorated bright blue and green containers with cut-out shapes to form faces – human, canine, feline and free-form faces were all represented. The succulents were then planted to form the “hair” for the faces. A round of “Bird Bingo” was played along with some discussion about the importance of birds in the ecology of our planet.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day ! March 2023
Graphic Design by Tracey Cameron/Photos by Jeannette Michelson
Click on photos to enlarge.
The Youth Garden Club of the Garden Club of LBI met on Wednesday March 15, 2023 at the Surf City branch of the the Ocean County library and created arrangements to welcome St. Patrick’s Day. The group was led by Chair Jeannette Michelson , co-chairs Ginny Scarlatelli and Margo Bartiromo along with Garden Club member Paula Cofone. As Irish music filled the room, the third- sixth graders decorated their containers with shamrocks and filled them with green and white flowers. The star of the arrangements was the slender Bells of Ireland . This flower is not native to Ireland but has become closely associated with the country because of its lovely green color and is a St.Patrick’s Day favorite. The flower is also reported to bring good luck. The designs were rounded out with green carnations, small ivory carnations, baby’s breath and local greens. The group then made a golden tissue-paper flower to top off the arrangement . After a rousing round of Flower Bingo the children and these beautiful arrangements were ready to go home.