While I can’t speak to his academic industriousness, David Berle is officially the hardest working professor off campus. He’s everywhere: one day at Pinewood Estates knee deep in compost, the next behind the controls of a Bobcat, marshaling shovel and rake wielding undergraduates at the Council on Aging. Someone tell the man to take a day off.
I’m a bit late in putting this together, which I’ll chalk up to graduating college and doing a bunch of silly stuff like that, but here it is – a workday video of garden construction at the Athens Community Council on Aging.
I showed up at the Council not planning on reporting anything, just wanted to see what was going on, get the lay of the land, meet a few folks. But I can’t resist a rumbling Bobcat, so I pulled out the old Flip Video and commenced to interviewing.
Given that Friday was technically Reading Day for the students, and a furlough day for Horticulture Professor David Berle, few of the students really wanted to be working. Beyond meeting requirements for Berle’s horticulture class, most of them weren’t sure why they were even wearing gloves and hauling bricks. But as Berle said in a snippet of unused footage: They’re here to do what he can’t accomplish in a Bobcat.
The work took place on April 30, and I believe the project should be much further along by now. A graduate student will be on hand most of the summer to keep progress moving along.
If some red tape wrangling begins working in the Council’s favor, this greenspace project will grow far beyond this patio/raised bed stage, possibly tying in a ACC Greenway connection. Sounds great, huh?
Mrs. Mary Thrasher, who makes a brief interview appearance, is one of the famous Boulevard market Thrashers who once ran the grocery, formerly the Green Scene, now inhabited by White Tiger. If you ever have a moment, head on down to the council. One of the great moments I was able to sneak in was listening to clients and staff sing in beautiful gospel voices as they cleaned up after lunch. Tremendous. I plan to get back there just to hear those sounds again.
