Deadline Is Weds. For Beautify Beacon Hill

Tomorrow, Wednesday, Jan. 8, is the deadline to submit photos of winter window and garden displays for consideration in the first seasonal installment of the “Beautify Beacon Hill Awards.”

“We’re trying to get people to decorate throughout the year,” said MaryLee Halpin, executive director of the Beacon Hill Civic Association. “Our hope is that by publicizing what people have done to decorate in the different seasons will inspire others to enhance their areas, and for this all to help make Beacon Hill prettier than it already is.”

This new program transforms annual Beacon Hill Window Box Contest – a longstanding, annual collaboration between the Civic Association and the Beacon Hill Garden Club – into a year-round competition. According to the Garden Club, the once-popular contest has lost popularity in the last decade, with last October’s awards reception experiencing record-low participation and turnout.

“With the availability of instant photography and the Internet, we are hoping that the Window Box Contest can be revived in a new and more dynamic format that would honor the program’s original intent but expand to be a more inclusive, year-round effort,” wrote Sharon Malt, president of the Garden Club.

Submissions will now be judged by the Garden Club and recognized three times each year – in the spring and summer, as well as during the winter holiday season. The Beacon Hill Times, which joins the Civic Association and Garden Club as the program’s media sponsor, will publish photos of the winning entries for each contest season, and in September, all the year’s award winners will be honored at the annual Beacon Hill Block Party.

“It is our goal to work out a system of judging that is easy to execute, sustainable on a long term basis, low cost (no more prizes) and accessible via a host of communication venues,” Malt wrote. “We hope that over time the spark that ignited the original Window Box Contest will be rekindled using current technology and creativity.”

Residents can submit photos and addresses of outstanding neighborhood window boxes, tree pits, front-yard gardens and containers to [email protected]. The Times will announce the contest winners in its Jan. 21 edition.

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