Carson City residents Karen Abowd and Mary Fischer, will be honored tonight at The Atlantis Hotel and Casino, when they receive the Girl Scouts of the Sierra Nevada’s 2013 TRIUMPHANT Awards.
Karen Abowd will receive the Environmental Leader award for her work with The Greenhouse Project, a non-profit community greenhouse located on Carson High School’s campus that teaches sustainability and new agricultural principals and produces food for the community. Mary Fischer will receive the Community Service award for her work with Gardeners Reclaiming Our Waysides (G.R.O.W.), a non-profit she founded in 1997 with the purpose of beautifying area roadways using landscaping and art.
“Honestly, I never considered myself an environmental leader,” Abowd said. “I found a definition that read, ‘environmental leaders are those who look at environmental problems in light of their own experience and moral values, are committed to leveraging their area of expertise to realize sustainable development in their professional and private lives and exercise leadership in fulfilling their social responsibilities.’”
“As a designer when I hear it can’t be done, I say ‘yes it can, and this is how.’ That ‘designer’s disease,’ being able to see the outcome before starting a project, has taught me bridging skills that brings people and components together to get things done,” she said. “The Greenhouse teaches stewardship of the land. I feel socially responsible to make that happen and believe if I can do something to raise awareness about the stewardship of nature and each other, then I’ve accomplished something.”
Running for and being elected to office as a Carson City Supervisor has allowed Abowd to affect change on a different level and also co-owning Café at Adele’s has provided an opportunity for Karen and her husband, Chef Charlie Abowd, to host events that raise awareness.
“I began to look at all the pieces of the puzzle that are my life – designer, supervisor, business person, volunteer, mother, grandmother - all the hats come together and I guess in all those ways, the shoe fits,” she said. “I had to wrap my head around this … it is humbling to realize the company I’m in.”
Fischer arrived in Carson City in 1962 with her husband Al, who was an engineer specializing in roadways, and had studied the impacts of Reno’s freeways on the town, very early on. This perspective and understanding, inspired Fischer to found G.R.O.W. in 1997, as a way to soften some of the anticipated impacts, once it was decided the bypass would come through Carson City.
“We looked at the economic impacts, how bypassing downtown would affect business and how there would be two sides on either side of the freeway, creating those on the west who would keep their views of the mountains and those on the east who would lose their views and how we could create a way to bring people into the community and keep them engaged,” Fischer said.
This was the answer to the usual view of “a ribbon of dirt running through our city,” Fischer said. Like any worthwhile cause, G.R.O.W. did not come to fruition overnight and the mindset of “Nevada does not landscape its freeways,” had to be overcome, plans drawn and monies raised. Fischer, a Master Gardner, started giving talks and eventually found people willing to work with her.
“I just talked to anyone who would listen and in 2002, with Frankie Sue Del Papa and others we formed a committee to do this, came up with the aesthetic master plan and were informed by Carson City that ‘if’ we ever got the money to do this the city would maintain it,” she said. Other Master Gardeners and the Cooperative Extension were a great support and with an eye toward the day the money would be there, Nevada Department of Transportation built the infrastructure that would be needed to sustain landscaping. While G.R.O.W. had applied for grant money, the organization was always competing against other worthy causes and it wasn’t until 2006, when Sen. Harry Reid was head of the transportation committee, that NDOT and G.R.O.W. finally, from the transportation bill that year, received $2 million.
Collectively titled “Carson City in Motion,” the vignettes illustrate Carson’s history – the eagle represents Eagle Valley, Sam Davis Ranch is represented as is the Pony Express, the stagecoach and Hank Monk. Plaques at each location were carefully researched and checked by three area historians to avoid sustaining “historic inaccuracies,” and the plants were chosen for each location with this same eye to detail.
While Abowd came to her Girl Scout experiences as a co-leader for her daughter’s troop, Fischer grew up as a Girl Scout and eventually led a troop as well. Both women know the good that comes when girls (and women) work together.
“I had other women who came from scouting involved in G.R.O.W. and while we are grateful for the many awards we’ve received this past year, this one is very special because it comes from the Girl Scouts, who are so near to my heart,” Fischer said.
“I sincerely believe one girl can make a difference and girls working together can change the world,” Abowd said. “That and leadership is what Girl Scouts teaches and we see women coming out of that tradition and changing their communities, every day.”
Other recipients of this year’s award include Laura Zander, founder of Jimmy Beans Wool, Financial Literacy; Mercedes de la Garza, AIA, Principal, Mercedes de la Garza Architect Studio, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (S.T.E.M.); and Wendy Damonte, evening news anchor at KTVN Channel 2 News, Healthy Living.
Girl Scouts of the Sierra Nevada is the preeminent organization for and leading authority on girls, serving more than 4,500 girls with assistance from 2,000 volunteers in 23 counties in northern Nevada and northeastern California. For more than 70 years, Girl Scouts of the Sierra Nevada Council has been building girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place. For more information about how to join, volunteer or donate to the Girl Scouts, call 1-800-222-5406 or visit www.gssn.org.