The Garden Club of America has just announced the recipients of its 2024 national medals, the highest honor bestowed upon individuals and organizations by The Garden Club of America for distinguished achievements in conservation, horticulture, civic improvement, and historic preservation excellence.
With a long-standing tradition of celebrating extraordinary efforts to protect and beautify the planet, The Garden Club of America will present the medals at its 111th annual meeting in April 2024 in Hartford.
Save the Sound, proposed by the Greenwich Garden Club, has been awarded The Cynthia Pratt Laughlin Medal for outstanding achievement in environmental protection and maintenance of the quality of life in and around Long Island Sound.
For 50 years, Save the Sound has been committed to protecting and improving the land, air, and water in Connecticut, Southern New York, and Long Island Sound.
Through legal, engineering, and scientific means, it works to protect the environment so that people and wildlife can enjoy a healthy and clean environment for generations to come.
The breadth and depth of its toolkit sets Save the Sound apart from other regional nonprofits. It successfully uses a combination of legislative advocacy, legal action, engineering, and scientific environmental monitoring as well as hands-on volunteer
and educational efforts to protect this important region. It does not work alone. It takes a collaborative approach working alongside other environmental and volunteer organizations to restore and protect the area’s rivers, shorelines, wetlands, forests, air, and water.
This proposal was a two year project spearheaded by Leslie Lee, with help from Patricia Lovejoy, both Greenwich Garden Club members, and Jill Corr, Zone II Awards Chair.
Proposed by Greenwich Garden Club, Zone II
Seconded by The Garden Club of Hartford, Zone II
Letters of support written by:
Richard Blumenthal, US Senator from CT
Fred Krupp, President of the Environmental Defense Fund
Rosa DeLauro, US Congresswoman from CT
Katie Dykes, Commissioner of the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection