Common Wealth

The Common Wealth Award was established in May 1979 to provide annual grants to the community projects of the Garden Club of Virginia's member clubs. The projects must be in the areas of conservation, beautification, horticulture, preservation or education. The two word name Common Wealth was chosen to describe the "wealth" that is "common" to all Virginians.  Proposals are submitted to the Common Wealth Award Committee and finalists are selected and announced at the Annual Meeting.  Presidents of member clubs or their alternates select the winning project at the Board of Governors' Meeting.  Projects other than the first place winner may be resubmitted. For additional information please contact the Common Wealth Award Chairman.

Nominations should be mailed to the Common Wealth Award Chairman listed in the Directory and Handbook by March 1

2013 Common Wealth Award Nominations
By Katherine Knopf, Common Wealth Award Chairman
The Roanoke Valley Garden Club

The Common Wealth Award Committee is excited to announce two finalists for the 2013 Common Wealth Award: Chatham Manor Garden Beautification and First Landing State Park Trail Center Exhibits. There will be a first place and a second place award given this year. The first place proposal will win $6,500 and the second place winner will receive $5,500. The winners will be announced at the Board of Governors meeting in October.

The Chatham Manor Garden Beautification
Submitted by The Rappahannock Valley Garden Club

The Rappahannock Valley Garden Club seeks the Common Wealth Award for a beautification project at Chatham Manor. The commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War (2009-15) has thus far brought 30,000 annual visitors to the headquarters of the National Park Service (NPS) at this historic 18th century property in Stafford County overlooking the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. Budget cuts have prevented the NPS from adequately maintaining the formal garden whose landscape layers were documented by the Rieley Fellow in 2006, http://www.gcvfellowship.org/archive.cfm. The project will provide replacement plantings of shrubs and trees as well as repairing statuary in the formal gardens which were designed in the 1920s by Ellen Biddle Shipman. The club has already involved community partners in the purchase and planting of spring bulbs and funded a restoration of a sculpture of Pan that had been vandalized. The RVGC has dedicated fundraising efforts for this project and seeks to be a longterm partner in the beautification of these gardens. Knowledgeable gardeners will instruct others in best practices in the garden during the workdays. Chatham Manor Garden in winter JUNE 2013 WWW.GCVIRGINIA.ORG 23 Chatham’s place in Virginia tourism is extremely valuable. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln were among the early visitors to this property. The Common Wealth award will ensure that the gardens are worthy of the next guests.

First Landing State Park Trail Center Exhibits
Submitted by Princess Anne Garden Club
 

In 1940, Seashore State Park (now First Landing State Park) was a target for a 4-lane highway through the middle of the trails, dunes, and Bald Cypress swamps that would destroy the globally rare ecosystem and endangered native plants. The GCV and the PAGC went to the Governor to stop this destructionand won! The road was re-routed to go around the park. Seventy three years later, First Landing State Park has a Silver LEED Certified Trail Center and six exhibits that are the gateway to this natural and historic area. First Landing is a National Historic Landmark and National Natural Landmark by virtue of its Colonial, Native American, Civilian Conservation Corps history, and globally rare maritime forest ecosystem. These exhibits are the orientation for 1.8 million annual visitors. Through digital, interactive media, visitors explore cultural history, the human impact on nature, and meaningful conservation connections with the outdoors. The native plant landscape shows visitors how to encourage native species in their own yards. The Common Wealth Award would insure that the PAGC maintain and expand these exhibits as necessary, and give the Garden Club of Virginia the recognition it deserves for being an original steward of First Landing.

CLICK HERE to view a complete list of Common Wealth Award winners.

History of Common Wealth Winners