April is National Volunteer Month, a chance to celebrate the community members and groups who support clean water and watershed learning. VLAWMO’s Watershed Awards recognize local leadership in water protection and community education. After this year's nomination window closed, the TEC voted at their March meeting to name Gina Ganno Schmidt the winner of the Watershed Steward Award.
Above: Jim Lindner (left), VLAWMO Board Chair, and Phil Belfiori (right), VLAWMO Administrator, presented Gina Ganno Schmidt with the Watershed Steward Award.
Ganno Schmidt’s nominator described her dedication to educating community members about best practices that support pollinators and clean water. Ganno Schmidt received a series of VLAWMO landscape grants that supported adding rain gardens, prairie plantings, and native trees to nurture the wildlife, pollinators, and pond on her property. Her nominator shared that Ganno Schmidt has since then been a “tireless educator for best practices for healthy water in VLAWMO. Since 2018, she has generously used her yard as a classroom to spread the word about best gardening practices for water health and conservation through several volunteer activities with VLAWMO, including the community garden tours and site visits for individual mentoring in garden practices for healthy water.”
Above: Ganno Schmidt shares about her grant experience and clean water planting projects during the August 2025 Neighborhood Garden Tour event.
Ganno Schmidt’s leadership in the annual garden tour events has offered community members a chance to envision how they can support clean water in their own yards. Beyond these events, Ganno Schmidt has been an active member of the Watershed Action Volunteers (WAV) since 2020, “spearheading the peer mentor program of individual site visit consults for gardening for clean water, participating in trash cleanups near Vadnais Lake, and tabling at events, spreading the word about gardening for clean water.”
Staff appreciate Ganno Schmidt’s commitment to water stewardship and celebrate the ripple effects these efforts have made in the watershed. In the words of Ganno Schmidt’s nominator, “Her volunteer activities have been instrumental in spreading the word about the impact individual homeowners can make towards clean water and beneficial habitats for insects.”
Above: Ganno Schmidt with staff at VLAWMO's educational booth during White Bear Lake's Environmental Resources Expo. Ganno Schmidt's nominator highlighted her involvement in supporting VLAWMO at educational events, helping to spread the word on gardening for clean water.
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Looking for ways to volunteer in the watershed? Visit vlawmo.org/events for upcoming opportunities, including a Volunteer Appreciation Dinner, a Lake Cleanup Day, and a WAV Planning Meeting.