ASHLAND, Va. â Elizabeth Neal Davenport, better known as Betty, of the Chatham Garden Club, is the winner of the 2021 de Lacy Gray Memorial Medal for Conservation. The award was presented at the Garden Club of Virginia annual meeting hosted by the Ashland Garden Club on May 5.
This award was first presented in 1965 as a memorial to de Lacy Thompson Gray. It is presented to an individual member or member club of the Garden Club of Virginia in recognition of outstanding effort to further the knowledge of our natural resources and encourage their wise use.
Proposed by the Chatham Garden Club, Betty has played a central role in transforming a thirteen hundred acre tract of land on her farm, Banister Bend Farm, into a nature preserve. The goal of the preserve has been to construct, restore and preserve wildlife habitat with a mix of streams, riparian areas, wetlands and adjacent uplands which further enhance and compliment the functions of the Banister River and Stinking Creek. A B