The group will honor Mill Mountain Garden Club with an environmental stewardship award.
The Blue Ridge Land Conservancy will celebrate its 25th anniversary at its annual Conservation Celebration & Auction atop Mill Mountain on Sunday, October 3rd.
The conservancy, founded as the Western Virginia Land Trust in 1996 by local volunteers, will honor the Mill Mountain Garden Club with the A. Victor Thomas Environmental Stewardship Award for the club’s long history of environmental action and advocacy.
The Conservation Celebration & Auction, which starts at 4 p.m. and concludes at 7:30 p.m., will feature a gourmet catered dinner by Tracy Hamilton, local beer, wine and spirits, music from folk-pop and alt-country duet Haze & Dacey, a live and silent auction, and more.
The Mill Mountain Garden Club will be the sixteenth recipient of the Vic Thomas Award, given annually to a person, persons or group that has made significant contributions to the preservation of the natural heritage of western Virginia. Past recipients include the late Gov. Gerald L. Baliles of Patrick County and wife Robin; Apple Ridge Farm founder Peter Lewis of Roanoke; recently retired Roanoke Valley Greenways Coordinator Liz Belcher; former Assistant Secretary of Agriculture under President Jimmy Carter, Dr. Rupert Cutler; and Sen. Tim Kaine.
The garden club has been active in environmental activities for decades at the local, state and federal level. Its showcase project is its wildflower garden on Mill Mountain, which turns 50 this year and recently underwent an extensive renovation.
“It’s great serendipity that as we celebrate our 25th anniversary of saving land in Virginia, the Mill Mountain wildflower garden also celebrates a milestone,” said Blue Ridge Land Conservancy Executive Director David Perry. “The Mill Mountain Garden Club is a powerful force for the environment here in the Roanoke Valley, and not just for the wildflower garden or the club’s other projects. I’ve stood in the rain outside the General Assembly office building on a cold February morning in Richmond with garden club members, waiting to get inside so we could speak to our elected officials on environmental issues. These folks are great friends.”
Perry recalled the humble beginnings of the land conservancy. “Valley Beautiful and local concerned volunteers started the greenways initiative and the land trust at the same, in the late ‘90s. Our first home was a tiny one-room office in South Roanoke, and we had a staff of one: Dr. Rupert Cutler, who paid his salary with a grant he brought with him.
“Today we cover 16 counties, have a staff of six, just bought an office in the Old Southwest neighborhood, and protect over 25,000 acres of land from Blacksburg, to Afton Mountain, to South Boston,” said Perry. “We have two affiliates, one in Lynchburg and another in Martinsville. It never would have happened if not for the vision of the founders and the tremendous support from the community over the past two-and-a-half decades.”
All-inclusive admission to the Conservation Celebration & Auction is $115 per person, or $800 for a table of eight. Friends of the Land Conservancy will receive an invitation in the mail, while members of the public can go to partyforland.org to purchase admissions or for more information. Safety precautions for COVID-19 will be encouraged, including masking for unvaccinated individuals and physical distancing. Parking for the event is available only at the Carilion Clinic Riverside Parking Garage on Reserve Ave., where a shuttle service will take guests to and from the mountaintop.
For more information, visit partyforland.org, call (540) 985-0000 ext. 3, or email tbadger@brlcva.org.
