- November 1, 2024
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The Longboat Key Garden Club recently awarded over $60,000 of grant and scholarship money to local nonprofit organizations and different college students from around the state.
The club's annual meeting was on April 28 in the Fellowship Hall at Longboat Island Chapel and hosted all of its grant and scholarship recipients. Along with awarding these recipients, the meeting highlighted the Garden Club’s accomplishments from throughout the past year.
The Garden Club gave $35,000 in grants to local nonprofits, which included Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Mote Marine Laboratory, Save Our Seabirds, Longboat Key Turtle Watch, The Paradise Center, Boys and Girls Club of Sarasota and DeSoto counties, Southside Elementary School, St. Martha’s Catholic School, and the Florida Maritime Museum.
“I don't think that the environment has been a strong educational point with schools anymore. That's my personal opinion,” said Melanie Dale, president of the Garden Club. “I think that goes hand-in-hand with the grants that we give out because without the funding from organizations like the Garden Club and so forth, organizations like Mote Marine, Save Our Seabirds, Longboat Key Turtle Watch and the schools that we give the grants to, which promote taking care of the environment with their kids, wouldn't happen.”
Along with these grants, the Garden Club gave $3,025 to enable kids to attend the Mote Marine Summer Camp. Recipients had to live on Longboat Key or have parents employed on Longboat Key.
The club is also funding a $10,000 beautification grant allocated to the Town Center pavilion/stage and entrance to the Town Center Green.
The Garden Club awarded $25,000 in scholarships to four students to use for any college expenses of their choosing such as tuition and books. Tori Guarino was awarded the $10,000 scholarship that was funded by Janet Hartman and Charles T. Bauer Foundation. Guarino is studying at Florida Gulf Coast University in pursuit of a bachelor's of science in biology with a minor in environmental education and chemistry. She plans to earn her master's and doctorate degree in an environmental field with an emphasis in wildlife conservation and environmental remediation.
“They are really accomplished,” said Susan Phillips, immediate past president of the Garden Club and the current head of special projects. “These students are typically 4.0, 3.9, 3.8 caliber students. They're already doing research projects and white papers, and they're out in the field doing scientific studies. Their commitment to improving our ecology, the water quality, is just unbelievable.”
The rest of the scholarship money was given out in three $5,000 scholarships. Devin O’Hara attends the Sarasota-Manatee Campus of University of South Florida and is majoring in biomedical science. Carter Oleckna is a biology major with a concentration in microbiology at Florida Gulf Coast University and hopes to pursue his doctorate in agricultural sciences. Sophia Pearce majors in zoology at University of Central Florida focusing on working with animals in zoos, aquariums and rescue rehabilitation.
To qualify for a Longboat Garden Club scholarship, the student must be majoring in a field relating to environmental matters such as horticulture, floriculture, botany, landscape design, conservation, forestry, agronomy or plant pathology.
“Because of the Garden Club's mission for beautification, conservation, environmental initiatives,” said Phillips. “Because of that narrow focus on the environment and natural resources, we have to award our scholarships to people who are in an environmental field.”
Applicants must have enough credits to be a college junior or above while maintaining a 3.0 or higher GPA. They must submit four letters of recommendation, a one-page resume of extracurricular activities, awards and job experience, and a one-page essay describing their field of study, future plans and why financial assistance is requested.
“The scholarships are so important because we do promote protecting the environment and the animals and the sea life and the beaches,” said Dale. “The kids who are receiving these scholarships are just doing amazing work with their education and giving back not only to the community but to the environment here.”
