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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 7, 2008

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Brooklyn Botanic Garden Presents
2008 Forsythia Awards

Outstanding Leaders Honored at Annual Forsythia Day, Sunday, April 6, 2008

2008 Forsythia Awards

From left: BBG Chairman of the Board Frederick Bland, Distinguished Service Medal recipient Gina Ingoglia, Forsythia Youth Award recipient Caroline Kouretsos, Distinguished Service Medal recipient Francesca Anderson, Forsythia Award recipient Elizabeth Scholtz, and BBG President Scot Medbury. (Photo: Silk Studio, Inc.)

Brooklyn, New York—April 7, 2008—In recognition of Brooklyn's outstanding community leaders, Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) honored the extraordinary achievements of four individuals on Sunday, April 6, at the annual Forsythia Day awards ceremony. The 2008 award recipients are:

Since 1954, Brooklyn Botanic Garden has honored civic and philanthropic leaders of the borough on Forsythia Day, which is named after the official flower of Brooklyn. The forsythia, a vigorous plant that produces brilliant yellow flowers in spring, is a symbol of brotherhood, unity, and understanding—and represents the admirable accomplishments of each award recipient.

The Garden presented the 2008 Forsythia Award to Elizabeth Scholtz for her extraordinary service to the Brooklyn community. Miss Scholtz is a leading educator, writer, lecturer, tour leader, and administrator in the field of American horticulture and is one of Brooklyn's greatest ambassadors to the world. Born and educated in South Africa, Miss Scholtz arrived in Brooklyn in 1960 with a plan to study at BBG and return home. Forty-eight years later, Brooklyn remains her adopted home, where she has left an indelible mark.

In recognition of her considerable contributions to horticulture, Miss Scholtz has received eight significant national and international horticulture awards. In February 1990, she received the prestigious Gold Veitch Memorial Medal of the Royal Horticulture Society. Miss Scholtz has also received the Liberty Hyde Bailey Medal from the American Horticultural Society and Swarthmore College's distinguished Arthur Hoyt Scott Garden and Horticulture Award for having "devoted her career to inspiring people's interest in horticulture—from the smallest child to fellow professionals." Acknowledgments of her great gifts to cultural life in New York include an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Pace University and an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Long Island University. Miss Scholtz has served on the boards of many local and national organizations, including the Independence Community Bank, the Horticultural Society of New York, the Magnolia Tree Earth Center, and the Screening Committee of the Garden Conservancy.

Miss Scholtz has been a guiding force in Brooklyn Botanic Garden's hallmark programs in education, publications, horticultural display, scientific research, and public outreach, and has quietly raised millions of dollars for this Brooklyn jewel. Since 1960, Miss Scholtz has increased the breadth and depth of BBG's education programs for both children and adults. She organized BBG's first foreign garden tour in 1966 and since then has led thousands of travelers on 99 tours to 42 countries. In 1972, Miss Scholtz assumed the directorship of Brooklyn Botanic Garden, guiding the institution through New York City's fiscal crisis of the 1970s. Appointed director emeritus in 1987, Miss Scholtz continues to work as a lecturer, editor, and tour leader.

First awarded in 1951, the Distinguished Service Medal recognizes individuals who have exhibited exceptional volunteer leadership at the Garden. The 2008 Distinguished Service Medal was presented to Francesca Anderson and Gina Ingoglia.

Francesca Anderson is the president of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society and a renowned botanical artist. Her pen-and-ink drawings have been published in numerous art and science books, are represented in many international museums and private collections, and have been exhibited in more than 20 solo shows and 60 group shows in the United States and abroad. She has received two gold medals from the Royal Horticultural Society, London, and is a fellow of the Linnaean Society of London. Ms. Anderson is a 40-year Brooklyn resident, wife, and mother of two. She served on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Board of Trustees for nine years.

Gina Ingoglia is vice president of the Florilegium Society, and the author of more than 80 children's books. She holds an M.A. in publishing from NYU and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Dickinson College. A Cook Scholar graduate in Landscape Architecture from Rutgers, she maintains a private practice in residential garden design. She wrote and illustrated "The Budding Gardener" column in BBG's Plants & Gardens News, and her upcoming children's book on trees is scheduled for publication by BBG in September. Her watercolor, Pinus nigra, painted for the Florilegium Society, was featured in BBG's 2008 Portraits of the Garden calendar. She serves on numerous boards and on the BBG Education Committee and is the garden advisor to Mount Vernon Hotel Museum. Ms. Ingoglia is married to Earl D. Weiner, Chairman Emeritus of the BBG Board of Trustees, and they have two children and two grandchildren.

The 2008 Forsythia Youth Award—presented to a young person whose volunteerism has contributed to the improvement of the community and the environment—was given to Caroline Kouretsos. A senior at Bay Ridge Preparatory School, Ms. Kouretsos has been a docent at the New York Aquarium since 2006, where she imparts information about aquatic mammals and other ocean life to the aquarium's visitors. This spring she will be spearheading a "Spring into Conservation" event at the aquarium sponsored by her Girl Scout troop, to which she is also very committed. Ms. Kouretsos single-handedly presented the concept to the aquarium and has organized a number of activities for children and adults. In addition to working at the aquarium, Ms. Kouretsos serves as a Sunday school teacher with her mother at church, volunteers at her school, and has a part-time job. Looking ahead to college, Ms. Kouretsos hopes to pursue a major in psychology and a minor in education and to become a school psychologist.