TribLive Hampton Journal highlightes Ingomar Garden Club in the August 10, 2023 edition

Garden greats: 

Ingomar club presents awards to creative students

By Maria Sosso - Aug. 10, 2023

The Ingomar Garden Club recognized the achievements of local students with an awards lunch on Aug. 2.

Each year, there are various youth award contests through the National Garden Clubs Inc., including the High School Essay Contest, Poetry Contest and Smokey Bear & Woodsy Owl Poster Contests. This year's theme for the poetry contest was "Seeds, Trees and Bees, Oh My! Exploring the Glory of Nature."

Chairs of the IGC Awards Committee and some club members do the preliminary judging of submissions by students from several schools and YMCA programs for these and other youth awards. They are then submitted to the National Garden Clubs for possible local, state, regional and national awards.

Each student at the awards lunch, held at St. Thomas of the Field Church in Richland, was presented with flowers and a monetary prize.

Hampton Poff Elementary kindergartener Ellie Wen and Hampton Central Elementary fifth-grader Charlie Osborne attended and read their poems. They both placed first in the state for their poetry in their respective grade levels.

These students also won awards by grade for their essay, poetry or poster:

• Ella Harold, Hampton High School senior, first in the state in the essay contest.

• Sorcha O'Sullivan, St. Kilian School sixth-grader, first in the state and nationally in the poetry contest.

• Valerie Begis, St. Kilian eighth-grader, first in the state in the poetry contest.

• Audrey Jeffries, St. Kilian fourth-grader, first in the state and national levels for her Woodsy Owl poster.

• Hannah Kaminski, St. Kilian fifth-grader, first in the state for her Woodsy Owl Poster.

In addition to those contest winners, the Ingomar Garden Club presented a certificate for a $1000 scholarship to recent Aquinas Academy of Pittsburgh graduate Liam Ellis, who will be starting his freshman year at the College of William and Mary this fall. The scholarship will be renewable each year as long as he maintains environmental studies as his major and at least a 3.5 grade point average.

Ellis created and maintained a pollinator garden as well as a rain gutter garden on the Aquinas Academy campus in Hampton. He also provided fresh vegetables for the North Hills Community Outreach food pantry.

"I'm so honored to receive this scholarship. It means so much to have my work recognized," he said. "I would not be able to attend my dream school if it weren't for the support of the club. Thank you all so much again for investing in me as a student as I begin my time in college."

Maria Sosso is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.