Carolyn Lambright-Davis is Greenbelt’s 2026 Outstanding Citizen, as announced at the Labor Day Festival’s Opening Ceremony on Friday, September 4. Lambright-Davis was recognized for serving as a board member of the CHesapeake Education, Arts and Research Society (CHEARS), leading the CHEARS-sponsored Earth Squad Program at Springhill Lake Recreation Center
(SHLRC), contributing to the Greenbelt Pumpkin Festival, her civics education and voter registration efforts, and producing cultural and arts programs. Lambright-Davis has modeled, taught and woven environmental stewardship, responsible citizenship, personal growth, and respect for and cooperation with others throughout her life and contributions.
CHEARS
Lambright-Davis began volunteering with CHEARS around 2015, becoming a board member responsible for leading its board meetings. Fellow board members credited her leadership with supporting productive decision processes, increasing diverse volunteer participation from across Greenbelt and encouraging meaningful projects to benefit all areas of Greenbelt.
Earth Squad
Lambright-Davis, with husband Bill Davis, has led the CHEARS-sponsored Earth Squad after-school and summer program at SHLRC since around 2016, mentoring elementary, middle and high school students in sustainability through planning, planting and harvesting produce in the CHEARS Three Sisters Garden West and sharing the produce with Franklin Park families.
Lambright-Davis told the News Review in 2017 that the Earth Squad and CHEARS aim to create a “zeal” for environmentalism, healthy living, volunteerism and partnerships because, she said, “No one does it alone.” She thoughtfully engages the students in citizen science partnerships. For instance, a community hot composting organization taught the students about hot composting before the students tested several different composts by how well radish seeds germinated in samples of each. Also, University of Maryland expert gardeners have led workshops with the students.
Earth Squad is more than gardening — it’s also about life. Lambright-Davis begins school year sessions with snacks, literacy, homework help and tutoring five days a week. This reporter observed her interacting with students, guiding them to begin interactions with a hello, to make requests politely and to be considerate of other students. She took students to visit city council offices and arranged for NASA scientists to talk with the students. “There are kids in middle and high school now that, because of Earth Squad, are connected to their community in a way that keeps them out of trouble,” CHEARS board member Jennifer Dudley told the News Review.
Pumpkin Festival
Those who nominated Lambright-Davis for Outstanding Citizen cited her for helping catalyze the Greenbelt Pumpkin Festival to include all of Greenbelt. The Festival now brings pumpkin carving and pumpkin walks to Greenbelt East and to Greenbelt Center, and pumpkin carving and a Trunk or Treat to Greenbelt West, making what Lambright-Davis told the News Review in 2023 is a Pumpkin Festival for “One Greenbelt.” She played a part in composting pumpkin carving remainders and saving pumpkin seeds for planting, adding education for the Earth Squad and increasing the environmental circularity of a festival first created for environmental stewardship, protecting Greenbelt’s North Woods from development.
Organic Land Care in the DMV
Lambright-Davis completed the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) organic land care certification course in Pennsylvania, and brought the course to Greenbelt to make it available in the Washington, D.C. area, coordinating the many requirements and details. There are now 35 Organic Land Care-certified persons at the University of Maryland, City of Takoma Park, Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, Brookside Gardens and the City of Greenbelt with the tools and skills to help protect public health and the environment.
Black History Arts, Culture
Lambright-Davis has engaged Earth Squad students in hands-on arts projects that celebrate Black American history and culture. For a 2023 Black History Month event, she worked with Earth Squad students and parents, Ghanaian master drummer and craftsman Michael Kweku Owusu and with Nana Malaya Rucker of the Nubian Theatre & Dance Company to recruit and teach students to dance with Rucker and the group Hands on Drums, to welcome attendees to the event. She also partnered with The SPACE Free Art For All in a workshop for the students to make Black American history-inspired drawings and etchings.
Civic Involvement
Lambright-Davis and her husband have spent many hours hosting voter registration drives at Beltway Plaza, not only helping passersby complete voter registration forms, but engaging them in why voting matters in making a local impact.
Devotion
When the News Review talked with attendees, we found a current of devotion flowing through the crowd. When husband Bill Davis said he didn’t have to trick Lambright-Davis to come to the ceremony, we asked if the Earth Squad students sitting behind her at the ceremony weren’t a giveaway, he said “No, they’re always with her.” Her church members from Eastern Community Baptist Church in Landover came to celebrate her, but luckily she didn’t see them before the ceremony.
Talking with Earth Squad teens about how they feel about their mentor, they uniformly cited how long they’ve been with her: “I’ve been with Miss Davis since kindergarten.” “I’ve been with Miss Davis since first grade.” Davis said his wife loves to garden because she grew up in a city; even though he grew up on a farm and doesn’t feel a need to garden today, he does it for her.
When Mayor Emmett Jordan presented Lambright-Davis with the traditional Mother and Child statue at the reception in city council chambers following the ceremony, he said he looks up to her (to laughter from the crowd seeing the noticeably tall mayor and noticeably shorter Lambright-Davis). We can all look up to this year’s Outstanding Citizen and honor and learn from her contributions to her community.
