First Place:
Jill’s Garden – Union Mission Women and Children’s Shelter, Norfolk
Submitted by Harborfront Garden Club, Norfolk
View Video Presented at the 2022 Board of Governors
Women and families are the fastest growing homeless demographic in the nation. The Union Mission’s Women and Children’s Shelter of Hampton Roads provides a beacon of hope for these women and their children, offering food, clothing, shelter, education, rehabilitation, and job and life-skills training. The shelter, housed in a renovated office building in an industrial park that is part of the Elizabeth River Watershed, wanted an outdoor sanctuary to provide spiritual and emotional renewal, particularly for single women who feel—and historically have been—ignored. In partnership with The Union Mission, Harborfront Garden Club created a garden with paved seating areas, native plants and trees, flowers for adorning the dining area and herbs for use in the kitchen. Club members have donated gardening tools, books and plants from their own gardens. This space helps create a sense of community and normalcy for residents, providing therapy, physical activity and tranquility. Funds provided by the Common Wealth Award will provide the resources to install an irrigation system, ensuring that Jill’s Garden will offer, for years to come, a place of beauty and peace for all who reside, work and visit this outstanding facility serving homeless women and their children in Hampton Roads.
Pictured are Common Wealth Award Committee Chairman Carol Carter, GCV President Missy Buckingham and Donna Henderson, Harborfront Garden Club.
Second Place:
Trail to the River at Fort Christanna, Lawrenceville
Submitted by The Brunswick Garden Club
Fort Christanna was built on a cliff overlooking the Meherrin River by Governor Alexander Spotswood, who governed the Virginia Colony from 1710-1722. Spotswood’s goal was to open the frontier for settlement, protect tribes of displaced Native Americans and to become a trading center. In 1991, the Brunswick Board of Supervisors charged a committee with creating a park on the site; developing its historic, cultural and natural aspects is ongoing. Features include a three-and-a-half-acre pentagonal fort area with a wheelchair-accessible walking trail and informational signage. Enhancing a trail from the fort to the Meherrin River is part of the plan to continue developing this unique site. About 100 yards long, it follows a gentle slope then angles more steeply to the rocks at the river. The Virginia Tourism Office has designated this as a potential canoe dock. The trail, which leads to a terrace for viewing the river, will be made wheelchair accessible. Rustic-style steps will make the slope more navigable. Railing and benches will be installed, as well as informational signage on how Native Americans and fort personnel used the trail. Landscape cloth and crusher run rock will be used entirely and labels will identify native flowers and trees. Funds from the Common Wealth Award would support enhancing a trail from the fort to the Meherrin River as part of the plan to continue developing this unique site.
Pictured are GCV President Missy Buckingham and Brunswick Garden Club President Robert Henkel.
