Community College of Philadelphia Honors Former Pennsylvania Horticultural Society President Jane G. Pepper

PHILADELPHIA, June 6, 2011—The Community College of Philadelphia Foundation will present its highest honor, the Bonnell Award, to Jane G. Pepper, past president of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, tomorrow.

Under Pepper’s guidance, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and its Philadelphia Green program vastly improved the quality and number of green spaces in the region, educated hundreds of neighborhood residents about the importance of horticulture and made Philadelphia a more vibrant place to live, work and play.

Pepper will receive the award during the College Foundation’s Fourth Annual Pathways Breakfast, which will be held starting at 8 a.m., tomorrow, June 7, at the Union League, 140 S. Broad St. Tickets are $50 per person and can be purchased by contacting Elise Morgan of the College’s Office of Institutional Advancement at emorgan@ccp.edu, or at 215-751-8068.

Proceeds from the event will benefit student programs and scholarships. Penn Medicine and The John A. Hartford Foundation are major sponsors that are helping to make this event possible.
 
The College Foundation also will present awards to Master Chef Joseph Poon, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, The John A. Hartford Foundation, and Ahmeenah Young, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority. These honorees serve as corporate or individual role models, demonstrating to others, what can be done to significantly improve the educational attainment, job training and career prospects of Philadelphia residents.

The Bonnell Award is named after Dr. Allan T. Bonnell, the College’s founding president, and is given in recognition of exemplary community service and a commitment to access, opportunity and transformational change. Thanks to Dr. Bonnell’s vision and determination, the College was founded in 1964 as a public, affordable, open admission institution of higher education. The College has since served more than 630,000 people and is Philadelphia’s only public institution of higher education.

Pepper led America’s first horticultural society for 29 years before retiring in June 2010. Under her leadership the Society’s Philadelphia International Flower Show became the world’s largest and most prestigious indoor flower show attracting 250,000 visitors annually.

The programs and activities of the Society, which has more than 16,000 members, also grew extensively during her tenure. A fellow of the Garden Writers Association of America, Pepper is the author of Jane Pepper’s Garden: Getting the Most Pleasure and Growing Results From Your Garden Every Month of the Year (Camino Books, March 1997).

A native of Scotland, Pepper has been a director of the PNC Financial Services Group since 1997, and is a board member of First Hospital Foundation, Longwood Gardens, Natural Lands Trust, Penn Press, Fox Chase Cancer Center, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships Philadelphia International Leadership Initiative.

Each of the Pathways Awards Breakfast honorees has used different aspects of education to achieve their extraordinary accomplishments. Highlighting their many contributions to Philadelphia promises to make this year’s Pathways Awards Breakfast an event to remember.