DUQUOIN, Ill. – Local southern Illinois residents were recently honored with state awards at the 2024 Illinois Master Gardener State Conference. Pam Appleton and Michael Biesk received the State Outstanding Master Gardener Award, and Sally Cook received the State Master Gardener Sustained Excellence Award. A State Master Gardeners Teamwork Award was also given to Perry County Master Gardeners, including Jane Chapman, Sally Cook, Karen Glynn, Beverly Harsy, Don Harsy, Dustin Hatch, Ramona Hatch, Janet McClurken, Jon McClurken, Mary Jo Novak, and Pam Swallers.
The State Outstanding Master Gardener Award was established to honor the best of Illinois Master Gardeners whose breadth and depth of involvement in the program is exemplary. Only the top two percent of active Master Gardeners in the state are recognized with this award annually. The State Master Gardener Sustained Excellence Award recognizes previous State Outstanding Master Gardener Award winners who have continued to develop in their Master Gardener careers with new responsibilities and initiatives. Less than one percent of Master Gardeners earn the this award annually. The State Master Gardener Teamwork Award recognizes Master Gardener projects that are impactful, innovative, and replicable statewide.
Upon completing her training in 2014, Appleton has remained a dedicated volunteer sharing her gardening knowledge, volunteering in her local community, and strengthening partnerships between state and federal agencies at the Rend Lake Visitor Center pollinator gardens. Her enthusiasm to support Illinois Extension’s mission is evident in the projects that she has nurtured over the years, including supporting local native pollinator gardens, tabling events at the farmers market or the Du Quoin State Fair, assisting with creating plans for landscaping at the Franklin County Office, and sharing her love of nature with groups of various ages.
Biesk has been a committed volunteer since 2005. His favorite way to volunteer is planting native plants and detailing the demonstration gardens at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds. He enjoys being a Master Gardener, is always cheerful and helpful, and is a great colleague. Some of the projects that he has been involved in include educating youth at the Du Quoin Soil and Water Conservation Fair and Kids in the Park, hosting gardening seminars or workshops, providing information assistance at the Du Quoin State Fair, and multiple tree planting and tagging projects.
Since 2006, Cook has served as secretary for the Perry County Master Gardeners, keeping the minutes, and informing local volunteers of local and statewide opportunities. She has served two terms on the State Master Gardener Advisory Board and served on the Illinois Extension Advisory Council. Projects she’s worked on include educating youth at the USDA Soil and Water Conservation Fair and Kids in the Park, completing the Urban Tree Health and Identification Certification program, and assisting with a tree identification walk and tagging project at Keye's Park and Pyramid State Park. She is a talented volunteer with a long record of achievement and passion for educating others.
Kids in the Park is a program that targets Perry County youth, teaching them about botany, horticulture, and nature in an informal learning environment at Pyramid State Park. Kids in the Park is a six-part educational series that meets twice weekly for three consecutive weeks. Annually, 25-30 youth participate in this program, and in total, this project has supported 134 youth. The Kids in the Park program is a project that has been serving Perry County since 2016. Volunteers awarded the State Master Gardener Teamwork Award participated in the 2023 cohort for which the application was submitted. This program has a profound reach to the local youth and serves as an example for Master Gardener groups statewide on how to maximize their youth education.
To learn more about Kids in the Park or Perry County 4-H clubs contact: Rhonda Shubert, Illinois Extension 4-H Program Coordinator: rkshuber@illinois.edu.
Horticulture Educator Kim Rohling noted that the awards are given to a very small percentage of volunteers annually. "We appreciate all of our Master Gardener volunteers," said Rohling. "Their dedication and service to their community is unmatched."
The mission of the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener program is "helping others learn to grow." From farms and small towns to suburbs and the inner city, more than 2,600 volunteers statewide put their mission of helping others learn to grow into practice by providing gardening education and outreach in their communities.
To learn how to be a Master Gardener volunteer in your community, visit: extension.illinois.edu/mg.
University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 700 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities — community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through six program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, family and consumer science, integrated health disparities, and natural resources, environment, and energy.