Local students earn National Garden Club awards

The Garden Club of New Jersey has awarded the Watchung Essay Contest Award to Southern Regional High School students Nadia Kuti, a junior, and Joseph Levy, a senior, as first-place state winners in the National Garden Clubs’ 2013-14 High School Essay Contest. Both awards were announced at the state meeting of the Garden Club of New Jersey, held in Bridgewater in June. The awards were presented to Beverly Reitinger, president of the Garden Club of Long Beach Island, which sponsored the local students.

Photo via Garden Club of LBI
Tommy Deakyne accepts his first-place regional award
for the National Garden Club's annual Youth Poetry
Contest from Julie Oldham at the LBI Grade School.

The purpose of the contest is to promote environmental awareness. The theme for the competition was “Today’s Choices Affect Tomorrow’s World.” SRHS English teacher Kathy Carr encouraged the students to enter the contest.

“They’re excellent writers, and as a teacher I try to encourage writing for an audience other than just myself and their class, because they need that,” said Carr. “The Long Beach Island Garden Club gave them that opportunity to plant seeds of inspiration. It’s a thoughtful topic they gave them, and it nurtured their creativity and talent. … When they have that audience, they have something to say, and then it’s recognized, it’s the perfect ending. Every time I saw them, they had a smile on their faces. I’ll never forget when I was able to tell them that they won.”

Kuti and Levy will go on to compete at the regional level.

Five local students, also sponsored by the Garden Club of LBI, were announced as first-place winners for the National Garden Club’s annual Youth Poetry Contest. Alivia King and Alexander Conklin, fourth- and sixth-grade Beach Haven School students respectively, as well as Tommy Deakyne, a fifth-grade LBI Grade School student, took first place at the state level for the 2013-14 contest. The contest theme was “Protecting and Conserving Our Natural Resources.” All three of the students will go on to compete at the regional level.

Hannah Skimmons, now a Southern Regional Middle School student, and Paul Adanatzian, an LBI Grade School student, were announced as first-place winners at the regional level for the 2012-13 poetry contest. The theme was “Protecting Our Aquatic Friends.” The students competed against other children from seven other states that make up the Central Atlantic Region. They also competed at the national level.

The awards were presented to the students during awards day ceremonies at their schools.

“Three years ago, the garden club chose to sponsor this poetry contest because it offered an opportunity to let young poets know we valued their writing, and the contest offered another outlet for sharing and publication,” said Nancy Kunz, a member and chairwoman of the awards committee for the Garden Club of Long Beach Island. “The yearly themes also invited the students to consider their role in protecting our environment.”

— Kelley Anne Essinger

This article was published in The SandPaper.