NFMG Receives 1st Place Award for Horticultural Education Efforts

The 2021 David Gibby International Master Gardener Search for Excellence (IMGSFE) Awards have recognized the North Fulton Master Gardeners for their efforts in the face of a global pandemic in successfully providing horticultural education to the North Fulton community and beyond through virtual webinar technology.

The First Place Award in the Workshops/Presentations Category will be presented during the virtual International Master Gardener Conference in mid-September 2021. Learn more about the Search for Excellence Award at https://www.imgcsfe.com/ and https://wp.imgcsfe.com/#1st-place.

The Evolution of the NFMG Gardening Lecture Series (2019 - 2021) in Response to the Global Pandemic - Video by Anila Nair, NFMG Intern

The title of our application and this video really sums up the transformation of our work this past year and a half. Prior to the pandemic shut down, we presented each of our classes in person at 3 different locations in North Fulton County. We typically attracted about 300 attendees to all 7 classes.

During the Spring 2020 Lecture Series, life as we knew it came to a stand-still. On March 13, in response to COVID-19, we announced the cancellation of the remainder of our in-person classes.

Our team quickly pivoted and learned how to record classes using Zoom. We created a YouTube account – www.youtube.com/northfultonmastergardeners. We recorded one of our canceled classes using Zoom and uploaded this first video in May 2020. This Hydrangea lecture has over 1,100 views to date.

In 2020, we Zoom recorded and posted 13 gardening lectures to our YouTube channel. To date, these classes have been viewed more than 4,200 times.

In the spring of 2021, feeling brave, we transitioned to LIVE zoom webinars. Our team executed an extensive marketing and social media campaign. We held 10 live webinars – streaming live to both Zoom and Facebook and afterward, we posted the recordings to those same sites. The Spring Gardening Lecture Series has had over 10,000 views.

DAVID GIBBY INTERNATIONAL MASTER GARDENER SEARCH FOR EXCELLENCE AWARD

The David Gibby Search for Excellence (SFE) Awards recognize the outstanding volunteer work of Extension Master Gardeners (EMG) throughout the United States, Canada, and South Korea. The award was renamed in 2019 to recognize the contributions of David Gibby, the former Area Extension Agent in King and Pierce Counties for Washington State University. In this role, he established the Master Gardener program in 1972 to address the needs of backyard gardeners for urban horticulture and gardening advice. SFE includes seven categories in which EMGs can demonstrate meaningful contributions to their communities: Community Service, Demonstration Gardens, Innovative Projects, Research, Special Needs Audiences, Workshops or Presentations, and Youth.

The Fall 2021 Gardening Lecture Series presented by the North Fulton Master Gardeners begins September 1

This series of 7 FREE virtual gardening classes begins on Sept.1, 2021. We hope you will join us for a class or two or the entire series. We are sure you will agree that we have a great lineup of presenters and classes! Register TODAY to reserve a place - http://bit.ly/Fall2021NFMG-GardeningLectureSeries. Please share this article with your friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances who are garden lovers.

More details about each class can be found in the following article: North Fulton Master Gardeners Offer Fall 2021 Gardening Classes (Patch, June 9, 2021)