America in Bloom Advisors to visit Coshocton
Professional volunteer advisors from the America in Bloom (AIB) national awards program will visit Coshocton, Monday and Tuesday, July 25-26. This is Coshocton’s ninth year as an America in Bloom participant.
In addition to receiving a detailed written evaluation from the advisors citing strengths and opportunities for improvement, participants receive a special mention for what the judges deem to be an extraordinary project or program. Additional awards that can be earned includes: Population category winner; Outstanding achievement award – the “best of the best” over all participants in each of the evaluated criteria; Special awards; Community Champion; and YouTube Video
Advisors will be evaluating the community’s efforts in the areas of community vitality, flowers, landscaped areas, urban forestry, environmental efforts, celebrating heritage, and overall impression.
The advisor team members are Leslie Pittenger and Linda Cromer.
Pittenger is an AIB board member and past president of the AIB board. She served on the national awards program committee as the advisor coordinator for five years and has been an advisor since 2014. She retired from her position as city auditor for the City of Belpre, in December 2021. Her passion for improvement of the area inspired community volunteers and she led the Belpre in Bloom committee (now known as Beautify Belpre) for seven years. She has completed the Ohio Tree Commission Academy course and is an OSU Washington County Master Gardener. Pittenger is the co-editor of the Best Ideas annual edition. She serves on the board of directors for the Belpre Alumnae Association and the Belpre Area Community Development Foundation. She graduated from the University of Georgia and was a business owner for 10 years. Now that she is retired, she has plans to continue her volunteering.
Linda Cromer has served her community, Greendale, Indiana, in a variety of political positions including planning commissioner, chairperson of the park board and tree board, and housing authority commissioner. She sits on the executive boards and plays an active role in the efforts of several national and state non-profit organizations dedicated to social justice and environmental issues. Cromer, who received a fine arts education at the University of Kansas, learned to love gardening at her grandmother’s knee. Owner and operator of a floral shop and greenhouse for over a decade, she has spent the bulk of her professional life traveling as an international representative for a labor organization, and has used those travel opportunities to audit design and horticulture classes at a number of universities, and to study the diversity and individuality of public gardens and the communities where they are located. Cromer is past president and active member of the local garden club and spearheaded her community’s first participation in the America in Bloom Program in 2005.
To date, more than 275 communities from 43 states have participated in the program and more than 22 million people have been touched by it. Awards will be announced Sept. 29 – Oct. 1, at AIB’s National Symposium & Awards Celebration in St Louis, Missouri.
Category: People & Places
