CMGA Lifetime Member Awards
In 2012, CMGA created the Lifetime Membership Award to recognize CMGA members who make extraordinary contributions to their communities through volunteer service on behalf of CMGA and the Master Gardener program. (Current members of CMGA are eligible for nomination, however, members currently serving on the CMGA Board of Directors are not).
The Lifetime Membership Award grants all the benefits of full membership while waiving all future dues. Lifetime members are given complimentary admission to all CMGA events, including the Spring Garden Symposium. A Board Committee reviews nominations on an annual basis and the Award recipients are announced at the Garden Symposium in March.
The criteria for nomination are:
Significant and sustained impact made in the community through volunteer service on behalf of CMGA and the Master Gardener program,
Depth, length, and variety of volunteer service to the community,
Professional leadership including demonstration of responsibility, creativity, ability to build relationships, and technical skills,
Ability to motivate and recruit others as volunteers,
Use of innovative approaches to achieve measurable gains in organizational performance and efficiency.
The CMGA Board of Directors solicits nominations each year. To nominate a Master Gardener for this honor, please send an email to CMGAlifetimembershipnominations@ctmga.org by February 1, 2025. Be sure to include your name, the name and contact information of the nominee and a short description of why the nominee should be considered for lifetime membership.
Please contact us at CMGAlifetimembershipnominations@ctmga.org if you have questions about this award. Any CMGA member may nominate someone.
Congratulations to our Lifetime Members!
Gloria Shusdock 2024
Gloria earned the Master Gardener designation in 2005 and has been an Advanced Master Gardener since 2019.
Gloria became involved with CMGA when she responded to an email request for volunteers in September 2017 to work on website redesign. The website redesign project began in May 2018, when Gloria initiated a detailed analysis of website tools. She created test sites of the best four to aid in a final choice, considering functionality and ease of use.
Gloria designed and developed the new CMGA website using the SquareSpace product. All pertinent content from the original website was incorporated and new content added. After thorough testing, CMGA’s new SquareSpace website was implemented October 2019. She currently serves as webmaster.
In 2019, Gloria created the Google file structure and tools CMGA uses to this day.
As a member of the Board, Gloria introduced the concept of and provided vital assistance in creating the policy and procedures committee to ensure CMGA’s Board manual is kept up to date. She was instrumental in designing and automating the creation of programs and name tags for annual symposia and oversaw the registration process.
Gloria has been a member of the Farmington Garden Club (FGC) since 2016 and served as a member of the Board, Communication chair, and Civic and Community chair. Her redesign of FGC’s website earned first place from the Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut (for medium-sized clubs) and was submitted to the national competition. The FGC directory and monthly newsletter Gloria edited also won first place that year. She stepped in as co-president over the past year and is currently serving as president of FCG.
Ken Sherrick 2024
Ken Sherrick volunteers through the Middlesex County Extension Center. He is an Advanced Master Gardener with over 3,500 volunteer hours since 2013. Below are the many projects/activities that Ken participates in.
• Mentor for Master Gardener classes, serving as a teaching assistant, and providing examples for the TSV project.
• Keeper of the Middlesex Extension office garden beds since 2013, directing renovations to the 4-H garden, and establishing a new garden in 2023 at the behest of the office staff.
• Project manager of the Garden Gang that designs and maintains the native plant gardens at the Connecticut Forest and Park Association’s Middlefield headquarters, which earned him recognition as a volunteer of the year.
• Project manager for the Ocean State Job Lot seed distribution project, reorganizing the effort in 2021 and continuing to refine it.
Sherry Smith 2024
Shery Smith received her MG certification in 2015 and her Advanced MG certification shortly after. She has been a dedicated volunteer at the Meigs Point Gardens at Hammonasset Beach State Park since 2015. In addition to her willingness to work on all garden projects and mentor new MG interns as well as any other interested gardeners, she was the principle designer of the Shade Garden and spent considerable time sourcing and putting in plants as well as documenting the design and plants to share with gardeners and the Public.
Sherry has also been involved in a number of other community garden projects.
Volunteers at Clinton Food for all Garden. Designed and planted the Pollinator Pathway border at the garden.
Member of the Clinton Beautification Committee.
Creates and presents at local community events educating the public about pollinator gardens
Worked with the local Girl Scouts on their Silver Award creating a 12x24 pollinator garden for the First Congregational Church in Clinton. She educated the girl scouts on th benefits of the garden and worked with them on design, installation and maintenance of the garden.
MAUREEN EGAN 2023
Meigs Point gardens were started in the mid-1990s by the Madison Garden Club, beginning with the Butterfly and Pond gardens. In the early 2000s, Friends of Hammonasset (FOH) began maintaining the gardens, but with limited resources, the gardens became overgrown. That all changed in 2015 when volunteers working with the UConn Master Gardener Program initiated restoration and expansion under the direction of Maureen Egan. Today under Maureen’s tutelage there are ten themed gardens whose purpose is to:
1. Enhance the beauty of the Park, while also providing a nurturing environment for pollinators, birds and other wildlife.
2. Educate park patrons about the benefits of creating home gardens.
3. Highlight the importance of native plants.
4. Honor local Native American and Colonial farming history.
5. Provide a place for rest and reflection.
During peak gardening season, a core set of MG volunteers meet every Monday with a working agenda. There are 10-12 core members. All work under Maureen’s vision and direction. During the winter months, there are monthly meetings to plan the upcoming season. Maureen also sits on the Friends of Hammonasset BOD. She has gone above and beyond to message and educate on the purpose and goals of the UConn Master Gardener Program.
KAREN BERGER 2023
Karen Berger has enthusiastically dedicated more than 2,000 hours of community outreach to Master Gardening volunteer service in Connecticut. Her work as a Master Gardener program mentor has advanced the most important goals of the
program and of CMGA. She has encouraged successive cohorts of MG interns to learn more about plants and their role in ecosystems and to become involved with local and state efforts to manage invasive plants.
Specifically Karen has marshaled MG based knowledge about plant and insect life to establish working relationships with members of the Canton community and its neighbors to tackle the “knotweed forests” that exist along the Canton/Farmington River Trail. Her methodical approach to controlling this invasive was effective because she identified the best scientific practices and coordinated the volunteer work of a range of people; MG interns, interested gardeners, various civic groups along with representatives of public agencies work jointly to reduce the knotweed along the trail.
Karen continues to share what she has learned from leading this effort with residents of Canton, other towns and a wide variety of interested groups.
MICHELE SORENSON 2023
Michele has been a Master Gardener for over a decade. Michele has been dedicated to preserving Sherwood Island State Park as the leader of The friends of Sherwood Island Garden, the team includes Master Gardeners, community members and youth groups. The work at the park entails planting new trees, maintaining the newly planted ones, working vegetable and pollinator gardens and planting new dune grass to protect the beach. As well as leading this group of volunteers, Michele readily shares her experience and knowledge with all the volunteers.
Michele gives talks to both the young and old regarding the importance of native plants, pollinator gardens and trees within a community. She also arranges presentations by other speakers on various nature topics.
Michele exemplifies what the mission of CMGA truly is.
BETH MILLER 2023
Beth Miller is instrumental in mentoring the interns of the Lower Fairfield classes. She takes extra time in instructional sessions and also is responsible for the perennial gardens at the Bartlett Arboretum. In addition she volunteers with a children’s camp.
THERESA HENNESSEY 2023
Since graduating from the UConn Master Gardener in 2012, Theresa has been a member of CMGA volunteering many hours to her community, the Master Gardener program and CMGA.
In 2012, Theresa utilized her engineering and gardening skills and designed, constructed and planted an ergonomic vegetable garden for the Knox Parks Foundation in Hartford, CT. This garden consisted of self-watering containers raised up on platforms. The containers were created from plastic storage bins and hard-sided plastic wading pools. Various grow-bags were also included. After one season in Hartford, this garden was moved to the CHR supportive housing unit on Center Street in Manchester CT, where, under Theresa’s supervision and tutelage it served the residents of this building for 3 years.
Soon after, she conducted a survey of the Knox Parks community gardeners in Hartford, CT, to determine the financial impact of vegetable gardens on the food budgets of these gardeners. She wrote and distributed the questionnaire, compiled and analyzed the results, and wrote the final report.
In 2014, Theresa started a community garden at Spencer Village in Manchester, a residence for the elderly and disabled, and it's been going strong ever since and currently in the process of building a new compost bin. She has also helped with Thanksgiving dinner preparations.
Every year since she graduated, Theresa organized and managed the Tolland Agricultural Center’s fundraising plant sale to support the Master Gardener Program. She was able to recruit volunteers, assign roles, and source plants for the sale, as well as organize teaching stations on site to engage visitors by dispensing pollinator information with a beekeeping demo from a local beekeeper.
Her volunteer hours with the Manes and Motions Therapeutic Riding Center in Middletown are just one more example of the various ways Theresa has contributed to our community. In addition, she has been a reliable presence at various gardening information booths at many public events.
While a member of the CMGA Board of Directors for six years, she served as President for 2 1/2 years and chaired the Gardening Symposium for 4.
Katherine Kosiba 2022
Katherine is a former CMGA board member who became a Master Gardener in 2007 and an Advanced Master Gardener in 2009. Katherine organized the Summer Safari for three years, worked to update the CMGA Vendor Discount Program, introduced and delivered the first Spearhead Spade and first McCue Nursery Day Fundraisers, and participated as a volunteer at CMGA Symposium for many years. In her home community of Colchester, she has played a leadership role in the Colchester Garden Club, worked to expand the club’s membership from 12 to over 80 members over the years focused on education and involvement in community service projects. With the help of CMGA grants Katherine was involved with the renovations of the Cohen Woodlands Butterfly Garden, Red Twig Dogwood Gardens, and new Children’s Garden which were outreach opportunities for Master Gardener interns for these and many other garden club projects. Katherine trained through the National Wildlife Federation to become a Habitat Steward and partnered with another Master Gardener to lead a volunteer effort through the Colchester Garden Club with the Town of Colchester and other entities to earn the Community Wildlife Habitat certification through the National Wildlife Federation, the first community in Connecticut.
Alicia Cornelio 2022
Editor of The Laurel, our quarterly CMGA newsletter for the past eight years, Alicia became a Master Gardener in 2007 and also served on the CMGA Board. In her role as Editor, she solicits articles and conducts interviews for The Laurel as well as writing many of the articles herself. In doing so, she not only keeps CMGA members well informed, she also ensures CMGA meets its communications commitments to our membership, including the recognition of new and Advanced Master Gardeners, grant recipients and volunteers for their achievements.
Ken Zacharias 2022
Ken was recruited right out of his Master Gardener class in 2017 and has been a consistent contributor as a CMGA Membership coordinator and volunteer. He has maintained and updated membership data, including processing, tracking and reporting on new and renewal membership data and trends.
Ken received his Advanced Master Gardener certification and has been active with the Windsor demonstration garden.
