At the September 30th Wheatley Horticultural Society meeting, Julie Mills was awarded the Ontario Horticultural Association Award of Merit for her contributions to the Wheatley Horticultural Society and other area Societies. The award was presented by Sandra Rammelaere, OHA District 11 Director.
Below is a copy of Julie’s nomination for this award. It was sent in early 2024. Since then, Julie has been a driving force in the Living Landscapes Symposium, has coorordinated another mural to showcase the life cycle of the swallowtail butterfly and continues to suggest great ideas at meetings.
Julie has served as either a director or vice-president of the Wheatley Horticultural Society since its reformation in 2017. She is also CEO of DeGoey’s Nursery and Flowers and uses the expertise and connections she has professionally to benefit the Wheatley Horticultural Society, as well as other local Societies. This is done in a selfless way – knowledge of what grows well together, expertise on product availability for municipality wide planting programs (Grow Together CK) and information on what local nurseries may have the product in question is provided. She also shares the resources of DeGoey’s by hosting production of Christmas centre piece making (a fundraiser we’ve ran in the past), providing donations for plant sales and prizes, helping with professional looking signage and tagging, sending employees to help with our projects when their production is slow, volunteer recruitment and more. In the break room at the greenhouse, a sign on the wall states “To whom much is given, much will be expected.” Julie embodies this with her service to the Wheatley Horticultural Society.
What the leadership of the WHS appreciates most about Julie is her clear communication and steadfastness in making sure she keeps her commitments to the Society. She has great, orignial ideas about how the Society can operate, often rooted in her experience as a business woman and mother, but limited time to give at our busiest times of year. Despite this, she clearly states what she can take on. She can’t help with planting the annuals, but she will have the plants delivered to the park by 7 am the morning of. She won’t be present at a weeding work bee, but will follow up later that day, find out what is still on the to do list and take on a job with her family on a free evening. Last year, she took charge of an idea for a mural that came up at a meeting, contacted an artist to get a proposal, presented it, liased with the artist to get it done and delivered it for installation. This is typical of how Julie works – we all wish our volunteers had her follow through. We are awarding Julie the Award of Merit for our Society, but do believe she is deserving of it at the Provincial level as well