Flowers and culture became the centerpiece of a celebration to commemorate International Women's Day. The Ohio-based Great Lakes Consortium and an Ohio florist teamed up to produce the 7th annual multicultural celebration that featured a silent auction, design contest for vocational school students, ethnic floral show, networking, and more.

Photo credit: Christine J. Weisfelder WHAT A DAY Women from all walks of life came together to celebrate International Women's Day with the Great Lakes Consortium on  March 1. The event featured an array of floral displays and floral tributes related to the customs of many countries.

Elizabeth Balint, project manager for the Great Lakes Consortium for International Training and Development (an organization committed to working with needs of the world community), says the event was a huge success — about 300 people participated in the celebration. "We had a special focus on the floriculture sector in northwest Ohio and around the world. We invited participants from the growers, the florists and teachers and students from floriculture vocational programs," she says. The students also created the centerpieces for each of the tables at the luncheon celebration, which would later be judged for the first-ever International Women's Day floral design contest.

Ohio florist Jean Emery, AAF,  served as the head judge for the floral design contest. She, and a team of other professional florist judges, selected the winners — there were 29 entries and they were from five schools — of the unique flower creations. The students entered their arrangements in either one of two categories: 1) Ohio — which required students incorporate red carnations into their design, and 2) International — which had students choose the colors of a country's flag to work into their overall design.

Ohio competition winners were Hannah Culley of Penta Career Center, Perrysburg; Kelly Gibson of Four County Vocational, Archbold; and Veronica Seibert of Four County Vocational, Archbold.
 
International competition winners were Kayle Zahniser of Sylvania Schools; Connor Walter of Sylvania Schools; and Jessica Colt of Clay High School (Oregon).

And the People's Choice award went to Ashley Davis of Sylvania Schools.

The day's festivities also included an international fashion show about floral traditions from across the globe called "Blossoming in the World — Celebrating Women Everywhere." The event featured 20 women (from 17 different countries) who modeled ethnic clothing and flowers customary to their respective country. A model from the Netherlands wore a traditional cotton Dutch bonnet and carried tulips; a model representing Mongolia was dressed in authentic Asian garb and adorned with delphinium.

--Cassandra P. Foster
cfoster@safnow.org

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