Subject
title
Environmental Excellence Awards
end
Department
PW - Environmental Management
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Mayor and Council concur with the Environment Commission’s award selections and present the awards to the Environmental Excellence winners with Will McClain, Chair of the Environment Commission, and other Commission members.
Discussion
In 2003, the Mayor and Council established a series of Environmental Excellence Awards to recognize extraordinary accomplishments made by residents, organizations, and businesses that work to enhance Rockville's environment and sustainability efforts. Additionally, these awards are intended to encourage other community members to follow the lead of the award recipients. Anyone can, at any time, nominate an individual, organization, or business for an Environmental Excellence Award. In 2008, the Mayor and Council designated the Environment Commission to review such nominations and select deserving award winners. In 2010, the Rockville Mayor and Council established the Carl Henn Environmental Excellence Award as a way to recognize outstanding individual efforts to improve the health or quality of Rockville’s environment, address a specific environmental problem, or increase public understanding of environmental issues.
The Environment Commission is recommending two awards:
1) Dawn Samen receive the Carl Henn Environmental Excellence Award for Outstanding Individual Environmental Stewardship for Litter Removal Beautifying Twinbrook Neighborhood Parks.
Dawn Samen has been picking up litter in the Twinbrook neighborhood for 18 years. Every day, she walks down the path that goes behind the Twinbrook Community Recreation Center to Rock Crest Park, picking up trash. She recycles everything that she can and throws the rest away. The only days she doesn't go out is when it is raining or snowing.
Ms. Samen recently received the Twinbrooker of the Year award from the Twinbrook Community Association for her efforts. She has lived in the Rockville area her whole life and is a self-proclaimed "perfectionist", picking up even the smallest pieces of trash along her way. She believes if one person from each part of our neighborhood did this work we would have a much more beautiful place to live in Rockville. Due to her dedication, the Twinbrook neighborhood is a cleaner and safer place.
Dawn Samen was nominated by Jen Hawse.
2) Ingleside at King Farm receive the Environmental Excellence Award for Outstanding Leadership in Environmental Practices for their compost program.
Ingleside at King Farm (IKF) is a senior living community that embraces environmentally friendly practices. With encouragement from the volunteer Green Team, the dining department decided to participate in a pilot composting program developed by Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection for the collection of food scraps from dining facilities. Maryland had previously enacted legislation requiring all institutions or non-restaurant food establishments that produce more than 1,000 pounds of food scraps per week to participate in food scrap collections. Once that dining facility’s program was up and running, the General Manager of Dining Services, Teddy Demessie, decided to extend the program to others residing in the Ingleside community. He invited residents to join the program by collecting food scraps in their private apartments and bringing them to a collection site.
Resident personal food scraps composting began in July 2024 with a group of 25 participants formed by members of the Green Team and other interested residents. The Green Team provided each participant with a list of acceptable food scraps and other items and guidelines as to how to collect and store the food scraps until the collection time. As Ingleside at King Farm dining department offers only reusable or compostable containers for carry out, the compostable containers are also collected. During a one-hour period every Monday afternoon and Thursday morning, the residents bring their food scraps to the collection area near the kitchen of the Café. A volunteer resident monitor removes any contaminants prior to placing scraps in the bin.
The resident food scrap collection was so popular that it was expanded to 50 residents, and then after 3 months it was expanded to serve all residents of the community. Every week, in addition to the kitchen compost, the resident program composts approximately 300 pounds of food scraps and containers, turning them back into soil.
Ingleside at King Farm was nominated by Councilmember Barry Jackson.
Mayor and Council History
The Mayor and Council periodically present the awards for Environmental Excellence as deserving candidates are nominated and evaluated by the Environment Commission.
Boards and Commissions Review
On March 5, 2025, the Environment Commission voted unanimously to recommend Ingleside at King Farm for an Environmental Excellence Award. On May 1, 2025, the Environment Commission voted unanimously to recommend Dawn Samen for an Environmental Excellence Award.