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NC Beautiful has announced that it is now accepting applications for this year’s A.J. Fletcher Award. The award is a companion program with the organization’s Annual Azalea Celebration, currently in its 23rd year. NC Beautiful and program sponsor, WRAL-TV5, partner to make thousands of azalea plants available to non-profit organizations throughout North Carolina. Applications are open to 2005 Annual Azalea Celebration recipients and will be accepted until June 25.
Alfred Johnston Fletcher was born in 1887 in the mountains of Western North Carolina. He was the son of a Baptist minister and the seventh of fourteen children. Fletcher was a prominent lawyer and business entrepreneur. Most notably, Fletcher applied for a 250-watt AM radio station in 1937, forming Capitol Broadcasting Company. WRAL-AM went on the air in 1939 and was only the second radio station in Raleigh, NC.
Fletcher’s business success was equaled by his love for landscaping and horticulture. Fletcher developed the gardens at WRAL-TV and it is the azaleas from these gardens that propagate the flowers distributed by NC Beautiful for its Annual Azalea Celebration. To date, NC Beautiful has awarded close to 200,000 azalea plants to over 2,500 non-profit organizations statewide.
The A.J. Fletcher Award carries with it cash, to reward non-profit organizations for maintaining their project, and plants to expand a current project or to create a new one. First Place is $500 and 100 azaleas, Second Place is $250 and 50 azaleas, and Third Place is $125 and 25 azaleas. Award applicants are asked to describe the current condition of their landscape project, the maintenance routine that was followed when the project was started, and information on who currently maintains the landscape project and plants.
About NC Beautiful
NC Beautiful has been part of the state’s environmental preservation community for 40 years, supporting awareness, education and beautification efforts that affect our quality of life. Today, we concentrate on hands-on and merit-based programs designed to empower our citizens to preserve the natural beauty of the state of North Carolina. Whether it’s school children building outdoor classrooms, graduate students developing cutting edge research, or a Boy Scout troop planting azaleas at an elder care facility, we make it possible for North Carolinians to keep NC Beautiful.
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lcarey[.]ncbeautiful.org 
