FOR VOLUNTEER SERVICE

          Currituck Master Gardeners celebrated a successful year with their annual recognition dinner at the Extension office on Dec. 6, 2008.  Sharon Huttemann was selected Master Gardener of the Year.  Elizabeth Gilson and Mary Bock each contributed 500 hours to the Master Gardener Program.  Receiving their 5 year pins for volunteer service were Mary Bock, Del Hasselbacher, Patsy Smith, and Will Smith.  Janet Spenser received her 10 year pin for volunteer service.  The “Golden Shovel” is awarded to the person who is not a Master Gardener but is actively involved at many Master Gardener events.  This years recipient is Donna Hauser.

            Projects for Master Gardeners included working on the new Currituck Botanical Garden at the North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Currituck County Center on Community Way in Barco.  The Currituck Botanical Garden is a teaching and demonstration garden for residents that will include an arboretum and will feature displays of perennials, vegetables, fruit trees, and turf.  The adjacent greenhouse will provide a unique venue to host “hands-on” educational programs for county residents.  Also in the works is a special exhibit highlighting special needs accessible gardening.  Earlier this year the Master Gardeners held the annual spring Currituck Home Flower and Garden Show, a fall plant sale, and hosted the 1^st Annual Daffodil Show for the NE NC Daffodil Society.  The Master Gardeners staffed a community hotline for residents to phone in with their gardening questions.  In celebration of Arbor Day, the Master Gardeners gave away free trees to county residents.  The Master Gardeners also participated in several other gardening events hosted by other groups in the greater Outer Banks area.  As always, this year the Master Gardeners attended many seminars and visited many gardens and garden shows to further their education.

            Currituck Master Gardeners made a generous monetary donation to the Food Bank at Pilmoor Methodist Church on Dec. 3

            The Currituck Master Gardener Volunteer Program is comprised of members of the volunteer staff of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension.  They provide unbiased, research based educational assistance and programs in horticulture and environmental issues to the gardening public.  The Extension Master Gardener Program allows the local Extension to extend education to an ever-increasing gardening audience.  It also provides the local Extension center with a highly visible way to meet the public demand for information.  Under the guidance and support of Extension agents, interested residents enter a specially designed training program in horticulture.  Participants in the program must complete the training program, pass an examination, and volunteer through the local Cooperative Extension center a minimum of 40 hours the first year and 20 hours in subsequent years.  The next class begins Tuesday, January 20, 2009.  Call the Cooperative Extension office at 252.232.2262 for more information.