Youth

Youth Committee Chair 2023-2024:  Jeannette Michelson

Youth Committee

The Youth Committee of the Garden Club of LBI  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!

Firecracker 4th of July 2023

Photos by Jeannette Michelson (Click on photo gallery to enlarge.)

The Youth Committee of the Garden Club of LBI,  led by chair Jeannette Michelson and co-chair Ginny Scarlatelli ,in conjunction with the Long Beach Township Parks and Recreation Department, hosted a patriotic floral design event  on July 4th for the children of LBI at  Bayview Park in Brant Beach. The design featured red carnations , spectacular white spider mums and  very blue daisies. The arrangement was topped off with a patriotic pinwheel and flag-themed shutter glasses. All supplies were provided courtesy of Barlow Buick GMC in Manahawkin. Everyone left with a smile and a beautiful patriotic arrangement for their holiday table.

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 Committee 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.