On February 16, long-time Wild One Jan Smith received the 2023 Conservation@Home award during The Conservation Foundation’s annual luncheon. Before she moved to her retirement community, Jan maintained native plants at her home in Carol Stream. Jan then got to work on expanding the use of natives on the grounds of her new community. Most notable, is that Jan has a park in Carol Stream named after her: Jan Smith Park, where she has an expanse of native plants in place of lawn grass that would have been there until she got involved. Each year, our Wild Ones chapter has one or two work days at the Jan Smith Park to help remove invasives as well as add additional native plants.
You may read more about Jan and other awards at: Announcing Our 2023 Conservation Award Winners – The Conservation Foundation. Note the first award shown (Paul Butler Award) is to Kim Haag, who is the current president of the Greater Kane County Wild Ones chapter.