The National Garden Clubs, Inc. had acknowledged the Lewisburg House and Garden Club’s decades-long commitment to beauty, birds, and education by awarding the club First Place for Bird Welfare for its 60-year-old program of distributing sunflower seeds to local elementary school children.
The Lewisburg House and Garden Club began the program in the Lewisburg Elementary School in 1959. In May of each year, every child is given a packet of sunflower seeds along with oral and written instructions for planting and growing the plants. Each student who brings their largest sunflower receives a certificate of achievement and there is a prize for the largest sunflower in each classroom as well as a grand prize for the largest sunflower in the school.
The club expanded the opportunity to grow sunflowers for birds and beauty to Ronceverte Elementary school in 2017.
The Club would like to extend our appreciation to the administration, faculty, and staff of both schools for their support and participation and to all the members of the Lewisburg House and Garden Club who have generously given their time and energy to this project throughout the years. Special thanks to Townley Hamilton who has led the effort in recent years and who assured that the program would continue to flourish even during the pandemic by filling the 1,000 bags with sunflower seeds, printing instructions, delivering packets to the schools, and writing articles for the newspapers about the project and its winners.
It was very gratifying to receive a national award, but the real reward is to see the pride and pleasure on the faces of the student each year. The Lewisburg House and Garden Club was pleased to receive acknowledgement for this successful program but is aware that the award was made possible only by the goodwill and efforts of the schools, the students, and the parents.
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