Milton Garden Club names 2023 scholarship winners
This year, the following students from Sussex County were awarded scholarships from the Milton Garden Club: Arely Arriaga-Gonzalez, Laurel High School; Brayden Hearn, Laurel High School; Anna Fantoli, Cape Henlopen High School; and Emily Mendoza, Delaware State University.
Arriaga-Gonzalez and Hearn each received a $1,500 scholarship through a donation in memory of Herb Flickinger.
In addition to helping run her school’s flower shop and managing its greenhouse, Arriaga-Gonzalez has also competed in the Delaware FFA State Convention for Floriculture and was a junior advisor in the school’s FFA chapter. She is attending Cornell University where she plans to learn more about sustainable agriculture. She hopes to use her education to someday operate her own flower farm on the Eastern Shore using indigenous and sustainable methods of agriculture.
Hearn maintained the responsibilities of a B-average student-athlete while being active in his school’s FFA chapter, serving in several officer positions, and in the Laurel Pop Warner Football program. He lives on a small family farm that raises livestock, and grows produce for its roadside stand and wholesale products for local businesses in the community. Hearn is attending Delaware Valley University studying agribusiness.
Fantoli received the $3,000 Milton Garden Club High School Scholarship in memory of Rita Smith. She has volunteered for the Milton Garden Club, Mill Pond Garden and Cape Henlopen State Park, among others. She has also worked at Lavender Fields beginning as a farmhand and working her way up to overseeing the lavender harvest this past season. At Cape, Fantoli was very active in FFA. Her love of plants and flowers has grown into a passion for the environment and has led her to a goal of studying forestry and horticultural science at the University of Vermont.
Mendoza received the $3,000 Milton Garden Club Post Secondary Scholarship in memory of Joseph Milton Lank. She is a senior majoring in plant science at Delaware State University, having completed her associate in applied science degree at Delaware Tech. Upon graduation, she hopes to pursue her master’s degree in agriculture at DSU. Mendoza would like to work for several years in a nursery or on a farm, and ultimately open her own nursery where she could grow fruits, vegetables and flowers.
The Milton Garden Club members hold various activities throughout the year to help raise funds for these scholarships, as well as planting and maintaining many of the public gardens and planters within the downtown Milton area. For more information, go to themiltongardenclub.org.
