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.