Annual “Sallie Junkin Ballard Keep Natchez Blooming” Award
Recognizing Outstanding Contribution to the Beautification of Downtown Natchez
DNA is now accepting nominations for the Annual “Sallie Junkin Ballard Keep Natchez Blooming” award!
Do you know an individual or a group whose volunteer time and talent has made a difference in the beautification of Downtown Natchez? If so, please nominate your candidate for the annual “Sallie Junkin Ballard Keep Natchez Blooming Award!”
Just fill out the form below to submit your nomination or email us at downtown@natchezdna.org.
The window is open for nominations from now until Monday, June 16, 2025.
Honorees will be presented with a special award during the 2025 “Celebrate The Blooms Bash,” Saturday, June 28, 10:00 am at Smoot’s Grocery. And don’t miss our Plant Sale from 8:30am – Noon at the Downtown Natchez Farmers Market on Broadway Street. Look for the DNA tent!
For questions about the award or about DNA, please email us at downtown@natchezdna.org.
Nomination Form
Please fill out the nomination application on this page.
You are welcome to also submit reference letters and other documentation you wish to accompany your nomination via the file upload.
About Sallie Junkin Ballard
Named in memory of native Natchezian, Sallie Junkin Ballard (1926-2017), who orchestrated the effort to make Natchez the “Crepe Myrtle Capital of the World.”
“By the way, I also want to add when I say my mother was a gardener, I mean she did yard work. Hard stuff. Weeding, planting, mulching. Hauling, digging, transplanting. Nothing made her happier than a full day of planting in the heat in her yard, with a cold beer at the end. Well into her 80’s she was doing yard work that a 20 year old would faint doing. She could not be stopped. Many of the crepe myrtles that now are growing through the city were planted by my mother, and her trusty side-kick, Rosia Lee Williams.”
-Donna Ballard Maselli
