Both women agreed and seems to intimately connect with our teams argument that community is at the core sustainability. Both seems to understand more than I expected that my greatest feeling of community that I've ever experienced was at a farm.
Interestingly, both of them mentioned (in slightly different terms) that there is something rewarding and therapeutic about getting your hands dirty. Ellen suggested that if you could get people to feel that reward, then you'd have gardener on board for life. And while Ellen said she had been gardening since she was a girl, Lara admitted she only started 3 years ago when she abruptly started a green house in her back yard. Lara explained the experience of touching the earth as a "clean, untouched" moment. She attributes dirt as the earth's purest form (my words, not hers). Ellen explained that when she had rough days at work, she goes straight home to her garden.
Its an interesting observations: the feelings of connecting with the earth. How can we incorporate those?!
Another intestesting connection between the two women: Ellen aruged that our major challenge in getting a garden on the main Tempe campus was convincing the upper management that its a marketable benefit to the "business". Lara explained that the whole reason she started her garden was because she knew it was something that would bring more poeple to downtown Tempe. In other words, her whole motivation for starting a garden was because she thought it was marketable. Maybe the Tempe garden is the perfect case study to president to president Crow. I believe a follow up email with Lara is in the works!
Follow up email sent: "...
ReplyDeleteLara,
Thanks again for meeting with us last Friday. Our meeting was not only important for our project, but it was also really exciting and fun. I'm glad we met.
I have a follow up question I hope you don't mind answering, though. Today I met with the grounds facilities manager on campus to discuss getting land on Campus for our garden project. She exposed a new challenge that she thinks we should anticipate facing: the University, she explained, has sensitive feelings about how marketable its campus is, and that generally, the upper management of the University doesn't see a student garden as a "pro" in its picturesque marketing strategy. I can understand...upkeep is a lot of work.
But after I left my meeting this afternoon I though back to our meeting with you, and remembered that one of the major reasons you started your garden was to get more foot traffic into downtown Tempe. In other words, your garden was a marketing device toward the promotion of downtown Tempe, yes? So my question is: how successful in comparison to your other projects do you think your garden project has been in successfully getting more people in downtown Tempe. Are there any metrics or statistics you'd be willing to share?
Ultimately, I'm wondering if your garden is a good case study we could use facing the new challenge we've discovered today!
Thanks again. And let me know when you might stop by the Vig!
Best,
Andrew (& Kiesha)