Celebrating our volunteers
rmp: need to get a picture of some King Co MGs… above is a State picture. In this section, note that the President’s Award and The Foundation Award are formally awarded by the Foundation each year. The OMG! is a peer recognition award where to be nominated is to be a ‘winner’ (e.g. everybody wins!). Through their leadership and participation, these Master Gardeners are exceptional at supporting program activities and projects. Nominated by their peers, this recognition acknowledges their degree of commitment, and their ability to inspire the people they work with.
President’s Award
Cleo Raulerson
Cleo helped to revive and now effectively runs the Speakers Bureau after a period of transition in leadership. She maintains the roster of speakers, topics and answers requests for a variety of groups. Under her leadership the number of speaking engagements we fulfill has increased, and she has raised $1,300 in honoraria during 2022 for the Master Gardener Foundation of King County.
The Foundation Award
Linda Peterson, Suzi O’ Byrne, Bruce Caredio, Bruce Williams
When an open date for an event at the Bellevue Botanical Garden had nothing scheduled, newly elected board Linda, volunteered to organize the Cool Plants, Hot Topics! event. Together with Bruce Caredio, Suzi O Byrne and Bruce Williams, they organized and ran a successful fundraising event.
Outstanding Master Gardener
Jim Olson, Siobhan Persson, Kelly Morris, Trish Bloor, Linda Peterson, Emilie Castle
These WSU Master Gardeners help host our 30 Bellevue Demonstration Garden (BDG) Workshops on Zoom. When presenting to the hundreds of people that attend these workshops, they are authentic, spontaneous, and personable.
Additional Nominees and Winners:
Master Gardener Janile Martin
Janile has assisted in planning the BDG Workshops for the past two years. She helps with scheduling, Zoom meetings and various kinds of follow up. She helped find new speakers for the Workshops. She also trained Zoom hosts for the Workshops. She frequently hosts Workshops herself and helps inexperienced volunteers to become comfortable with the role of
host.
Master Gardener Daryl Schlesser
Daryl is an active contributor to both the Clinic Leadership Team and Program Leadership Team. He was a Department Head at past Spring Plant Sales and has roles on other key committees. He handled many complex administrative tasks during the period we were without a Program Coordinator and has also played a major role in onboarding our new Program
Coordinator at a time when other major projects such as Intern Training and recertification were already in motion.
Master Gardener Gabi Hong
Gabi is both the Garden Leader for the Neely-Soames Historic Homestead Demonstration Garden and Chair of the Garden Leadership Team. At Neely-Soames, Gabi revitalized the garden with a focus on both community involvement and the volunteer experience. She took over this garden while she was still an intern and has implemented new processes, strategies
and goals. She encourages and builds rapport with the volunteers, visitors and strategic partners.
Master Gardener Jean Wang
Jean is a “Master Teacher” at the Bellevue Demonstration Garden. She co-managed
the Asian Bed for many years. When two new Master Gardeners took over the bed, Jean mentored them and encouraged them to try new Asian vegetables. She is at the garden every week working with interns. Jean is an ambassador for the WSU Master Gardener Program in the cordial way she greets and interacts with all garden visitors.
Master Gardeners Joan Baldwin & Trish Bloor
Working with Zoom and Vimeo, Joan and Trish established a new way to offer recorded BDG Workshop sessions. This innovation allows attendees the choice to see the classes at their own convenience. Trish and Joan also organized the Workshops into series which could be purchased at a 25% discount. Having the Workshops as series made it easier for attendees to register. Both of these changes to the BDG Workshops were a large part of why registrations wildly exceeded our expectations this year.