Gail Bromer recognized by local nonprofit for outstanding community service
Black Mountain Beautification Committee presents 2026 Willie Headley Award
Jessica Klarp
Guest contributor
The Valley Echo
July 5, 2026
Gail Bromer has been recognized by the Black Mountain Black Mountain Beautification Committee for outstanding community service, as the recipient of the 2026 Willie Headley Award. Courtesy photo
About 10 years ago, Gail Bromer was randomly walking through town square and saw Black Mountain Beautification Committee member Suzanne Money weeding in the Willie Headley Memorial Garden.
“Can I help?” she asked. And so she did. She assisted with weeding that day, and never stopped helping. That’s not all she has done.
In a full circle moment, the innumerable ways Bromer has contributed to the BMBC, and the town, have earned her this year’s Willie Headley Service Award.
The annual recognition was suggested and created 14 years ago by Suzanne Money and Libba Fairleigh as a way to honor Headley, who was a founding member of the beautification committee, a Black Mountain native whose family, the Kerlees, have deep roots in the town, and the force behind the development of Town Square, among countless other efforts that have had a lasting influence on Black Mountain.
“Gail, like Willie Headley, is an active force of nature for the beauty of Black Mountain. She brings great energy and ideas to any project she undertakes,” said BMBC member and former Willie Headley Award winner Libba Fairleigh.
Bromer more than exemplifies the spirit Headley brought to all things beautification. A Philadelphia native who spent her formative years in Connecticut, she and her husband John moved to Black Mountain in 2016, in part, to escape the cold winters. Now their two adult sons live nearby. A retired sales and marketing professional with a focus on the health care industry, Bromer brings an extraordinary level of organizational skills, and a good bit of heart, to the many volunteer activities she contributes to the committee.
Before her move, in addition to pursuing her career, she spearheaded an effort to protect the largest undeveloped property in lower Connecticut, preserving it as green space. In that effort, she coordinated with several nonprofit organizations, key decision-makers in the state and members of the community, at large. She energized the effort to fundraise and preserve it as open space benefitting all the people as well as the environment. She now puts that same amount of passion and energy into all of her many efforts for BMBC.
Bromer jumped right into leadership, assuming the vice chair position in mind-2019, before holding the chair position for almost three years.
Lyndall Noyes-Brownell, a former Willie Award recipient, was committee chair when Bromer stepped in as vice chair, and is now the organization’s Secretary.
“Through the years Gail has been a whirlwind of fresh air working on many beautification projects,” Noyes-Brownell said. “She has an amazing amount of talent and energy to organize a project from start to finish. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful leader and friend.”
There is hardly a project within BMBC that Bromer has not participated in or led. She helped redesign the hill behind the Black Mountain Center for the Arts, following a three year effort to improve one of BMBC’s first projects 25 years ago. She helped create the plantings at the post office and town hall.
Bromer has been in charge of procuring and organizing the vendors for the annual BMBC Garden Sale since 2019. She started the annual cookie campaign to thank town departments and the annual luncheon for public works, due to the BMBC’s close working relationship with the department. She was on the Seed Money Award Committee for four years, as well as field trip coordinator, Pop-up Plant Sale coordinator, and special projects coordinator for the plant markers in Town Square.
Of all of this, coordinating the maintenance of Town Square for the past four years is what Bromer is most proud of, and what she has poured her heart into.
“It was important to me to help create something that was not only beautiful, but sustainable,” she said.
Through her own personal effort outside of BMBC she worked with the town to get the fountain feature back up and running, and she designs and manages the plantings on the feature. She has motivated members to fill the borders of the square’s green space with colorful perennials donated by members over the years, and she organizes regular weeding, watering and maintenance. While the result of these efforts is a more beautiful Town Square, it is also an opportunity for members to build stronger friendships and to socialize with like-minded people.
“Gail is very deserving of this award,” said committee member Sally Webster, who regularly contributes to Town Square maintenance. “Her dedication to BMBC is visible, contagious and she is very effective at motivating others. Plus, she’s fun to work with.”
Bromer pours hundreds of hours into her efforts, always with a smile, leading members with varying skill levels, choosing plants compatible with the conditions, with an eye for detail, making hard work look effortless. Why does she do it?
“Beautification is important to the town because we should all live in a beautiful place,” Bromer said. “And, its beauty also brings in tourists who support the economic well being of the town. It is important to me personally because of the friendships I’ve developed through my participation. When John and I moved here we bought a house, but when I joined the BMBC, I found a home.”