Show Title: Build it and They Will Come
Producer: Erin Easterling
Time: 27:40
Show begins here:
>>>TODAY ON IMPACT... BRINGING FLORIDA'S COMMUNITIES TOGETHER.
---(It teaches them about giving back to the community. And in years to come, they're going to be able to see the fruits of their efforts here.)---
>>>MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES IN A COMMUNITY ISN'T A JOB FOR JUST ONE PERSON. IT TAKES SEVERAL PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER TO REACH A COMMON GOAL. TODAY'S PROGRAM LOOKS AT NEIGHBORS IN ACTION IMPROVING THEIR COMMUNITY, FROM RESTORING NATIVE VEGETATION TO AREAS INVADED BY EXOTICS...
---(It's community programs like this that allow us to exist and allow us to prosper.)---
>>>TO A COMMUNITY VEGETABLE GARDEN...
---(No better way to make friends than with vegetables.)---
>>>AND EVEN A FRAGRANCE GARDEN FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED.
---(I guess you'd say for blind people we go out and we look at these things, but we look with our fingers.)--- Impact Music/Animation
>>>THIS IS IMPACT. A WEEKLY LOOK AT ISSUES AND ANSWERS THAT IMPACT OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US. PRODUCED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES.
---(music)--- --(Keep pulling!!! While you talk, you can do both things at one time, I know you can, even the boys.)---
>>>NO, THIS ISN'T A MILITARY EXERCISE, THESE STUDENTS, TEACHERS AND OTHER LOCAL RESIDENTS ARE PULLING TOGETHER TO MAKE IMPROVEMENTS IN THEIR COMMUNITY. EACH DIG, TUG, OR CHOP TO REMOVE OLD ROOTS AND STUMPS FROM EXOTICS LEFT IN THE SOIL, IS HELPING TO BRING BACK THE NATIVE VEGETATION THAT ONCE THRIVED IN THIS HAMMOCK.
>>>HOLLY HOIER - TEACHER -COMMUNITY PLANTING PARTICIPANT: All of the plants that we put in here, they're going to be out-competed by these guys that are already well established with root systems in here, they'll be crawling all over them, so the really essential thing, as I've been told, is that we get these little guys like this here, out by the roots, OK. So make it a personal mission to get a radius of about 5 yards all the way around your body. If each of you do that in this area, you'll have a significant surface area covered.
>>>THESE HANDS ARE PART OF A TEAM EFFORT CREATING A NEW PARK FOR VERO BEACH AREA RESIDENTS AND VISITORS.
>>>DR. RICHARD BAKER - UF FLORIDA MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY LAB- DIRECTOR: It's probably going to be the nicest park on the east coast of Florida. It's going to be a big park, composing of about 300 acres of land. It's going to have hiking trails. Some trails for handicapped people. It's going to have boardwalks, There's going to be an observation tower, that you'll be able to look out at some of the rookeries into the river, and back into the mosquito impoundments.
>>>THIS PROJECT WAS ORGANIZED BY EXPERTS WITH UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES AND RECEIVED SPONSORSHIP FROM THE FLORIDA ADVISORY COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION. THE GOAL OF THE PROGRAM IS TO HELP FLORIDA'S CITIZENS, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN, HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING AND APPRECIATION OF THEIR SURROUNDINGS.
---(Ohhh!)---
>>>JANICE BRODA - UF COORDINATOR FOR COMMUNITY PLANTINGS: This is going to be the first passive park in Indian River County. So we want people to think it's theirs. And to really feel kinship with it. And the more they do with plantings and clean-ups, the more they're going to think it's theirs, and the more they're going to be better stewards of the property.
>>>JANICE ALSO SERVES AS PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL CHAPTER FLORIDA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY. ALL THE PLANTS SHE SELECTED FOR THIS AREA ARE NATIVE HAMMOCK SPECIES FOUND ON THE SITE ALREADY. PLANT VARIETIES LIKE HACK BERRY AND WILD COFFEE HAVE THE BEST CHANCE OF SURVIVING HERE WITHOUT SUPPLEMENTAL WATER OR FERTILIZER.
---(Once you've got your hole dug, then you want to gently take the plant out of the pot, you put it in the hole, and this is going to be too, too low right now.
>>>BRODA: The site's been cleared, they've worked hard at weeding and picking, and doing stuff they thought was sort of nasty, and now they're getting to the fun part, putting the plants in, that they're going to be able to come back and use to come and see grow.
---(music)---
>>>AFTER ALL THE WORK HAS BEEN DONE, STUDENTS SEE THIS EXPERIENCE AS MAKING A POSITIVE IMPACT ON THEIR COMMUNITY.
>>>JOELLA ELLIS - STUDENT PARTICIPANT: I feel good that we're helping out the community and I learned about some plants I didn't even know about.
>>>BRODA: Hopefully, it teaches them about giving back to the community. And in years to come, they're going to be able to see the fruits of their efforts here, and hopefully be really happy and enjoy them.
>>>ANOTHER SITE CHOSEN FOR A COMMUNITY PLANTING WAS THE FORT PIERCE INLET STATE RECREATION AREA. THIS LAND USED TO BE A WETLANDS COVERED WITH MANGROVES UNTIL IT WAS DREDGE FILLED IN THE 1950'S. J.B. MILLER OF THE FLORIDA PARK SERVICE SAYS INCREASING THE NUMBER OF NATIVE TREES AND SHRUBS IN THE AREA WILL HELP GIVE MOTHER NATURE A GOOD JUMP-START.
>>>J.B. MILLER- BIOLOGIST-FLORIDA PARK SERVICE- DEP: Cabbage palms, saw palmettos, white indigo berries, strangler figs, those types of things, that's what we chose. We're not going to try to introduce something in here that shouldn't be here. We're picking things that are here, and are in fact not only in the park, but are also adjacent to the site we are planting, and that's why we did it.
---(planting and natural sounds)---
>>>THIS LOCATION WAS PREPARED BY REMOVING MANY INVASIVE BRAZILIAN PEPPER TREES. THEY ARE AN EXTENSIVE PROBLEM IN NATIVE ecosystems IN THIS PART OF THE STATE AND THROUGHOUT SOUTH FLORIDA. BY TRYING TO ELIMINATE THE BRAZILIAN PEPPER, AND RESTORE SOME OF THE NATIVE VEGETATION, THE NATURAL HABITAT OF THIS COASTAL PARK WILL HAVE A BETTER CHANCE OF MAKING A COMEBACK.
>>>MILLER: It's community programs like this that allow us to exist and allow us to prosper. These people obviously are very interested, and the nice thing about this is they can come drive back through here, of course this is their park, they can come here in a few years, and see these trees getting nice and big, and think, you know, 'Gosh, I planted that tree or helped plant that area..' and see it prosper, and it's a really good feeling.
>>>NINA RAPPAPORT - TEACHER - VERO BEACH HIGH SCHOOL: It's a good community project to let parents and other people just like me, teachers, or just anyone from the community, come over here and do a little outside work, and just get into nature.
>>>WHILE THIS NEIGHBORHOOD EFFORT IS AIMED TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND STEWARDSHIP, ANOTHER COMMUNAL PROGRAM IN A MORE URBAN SETTING INVOLVES GROWING A DIFFERENT VARIETY OF VEGETATION.
---(traffic noise)---
>>>WITH ALL THE HUSTLE AND BUSTLE OF A LARGE CITY LIKE JACKSONVILLE, IT'S HARD TO IMAGINE THAT TUCKED AWAY BEHIND THE TRAFFIC AND TALL BUILDINGS, IS LAND WITH PRODUCTIVE SOIL GROWING FRESH VEGETABLES FOR A FAMILY DINNER. THESE PLOTS ARE PART OF A COMMUNITY PROGRAM CALLED URBAN GARDENING. THE SEEDLINGS GROWING HERE WILL SOON BECOME VEGETABLE FAVORITES LIKE BROCCOLI, CARROTS, ONIONS, AND VARIOUS GREENS.
---(Some cauliflower, This is the Milky Way, the next...what does that say... Cashmere. Cashmere? Okay, we're going to put 3 of those in... )---
>>>BARBARA DANIELS IS THE COORDINATOR FOR UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S URBAN GARDENING PROGRAM IN DUVAL COUNTY. SHE AND HER ASSISTANTS ARE PLANTING SEEDLINGS FOR THEIR FALL DEMONSTRATION GARDEN, WHICH SHOWS THE VARIETIES OF FRUITS, VEGETABLES, AND HERBS THAT CAN BE GROWN IN THE NORTH FLORIDA AREA.
>>>BARBARA DANIELS - UF URBAN GARDENING COORDINATOR: We have to have three or more families to start a community garden, and we teach them basically the planning techniques, and the new things that have been developed. Talk about varieties that do best here, and the help we give, is that we plow their garden for them. They're on their own as far as keeping it up. We don't do their weeding or anything.
---(opening gate.... All right)---
>>>JOHN ADAMS STARTED GARDENING THREE YEARS AGO, WHEN HE GOT INVOLVED WITH THE COMMUNITY PLOT IN HIS NEIGHBORHOOD.
>>>JOHN ADAMS - URBAN GARDENER: I think it's great because people with smaller yards, they haven't got the place, and over here you meet people, and everybody's nice, we sit around, talk, find out different things about gardening.
>>>DANIELS SAYS THIS EXTENSION PROGRAM WAS ORIGINALLY TARGETED TO LOW-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS, BUT THAT IT'S OPEN TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN HAVING A GARDEN.
>>>DANIELS: If we put a garden in a community in Jacksonville, one community might run from middle class to low income, and if it's within a certain mile period, anybody in that area can garden. We don't check incomes, or anything like that, we try to target areas where there are some needy people.
>>>URBAN GARDENING HAS ALSO REACHED OUT INTO ALMOST EVERY SCHOOL IN DUVAL COUNTY. AT THE PALM AVENUE EXCEPTIONAL STUDENT CENTER, HORTICULTURE IS PART OF THE OCCUPATIONAL TRAINING CURRICULUM FOR MENTALLY HANDICAPPED STUDENTS, PREPARING FOR LANDSCAPE JOBS.
>>>LINDA BELGER -HORTICULTURE TEACHER - PALM AVENUE CENTER FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN: It's an excellent program for our students here, because they can actually see a product. They can go out and work, it's hard, physical labor, it's good for their muscles, most of our students, when they get a job, will be doing something physical, so it's good for them physically. It's also good for them emotionally because they produce a product. They start with soil, that's for the weeds, or for the grass, and we turn the soil over, we plant, and they see the fruits of their labor, they see what they've been able to do.
>>>THEIR RAISED BED GARDENS CAN BE TENDED TO BY STUDENTS IN WHEELCHAIRS, AND ALSO PREVENT THE PLANTS FROM GETTING FLOODED DURING HEAVY RAINS.
>>>BELGER: We've also got a greenhouse and they produce a lot of potted plants, a lot of cuttings for plants for the neighborhood. We have a lot of teachers that buy from us. Lot of neighborhood people, a lot of parents, a lot of times the students will buy their own plants to give to their mothers for Mother's Day. So they really enjoy planting the plants, and they've learned a lot.
>>>BELGER SAYS THE URBAN GARDENING PROGRAM HAS BEEN AN IMPORTANT RESOURCE FOR INFORMATION.
---(Careful not to cover too deep...here, let's put one right here....)---
>>>BELGER: Whenever I have a question that I need help on, I call and say 'What do I do with this bug?, What do I do with this weed? or, Is this a good thing to plant here?' I don't believe we would have been nearly successful as we have been without the Urban Garden program as a support.
>>>THE URBAN GARDENING PROGRAM SERVES AS A SIMILAR SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE USING THE COMMUNITY GARDENS. THEY MIGHT LIVE IN AN APARTMENT, OR HAVE A YARD THAT'S TOO SMALL OR TOO SHADY. WITHOUT THIS PROGRAM, THEY WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO GROW THEIR OWN FRESH VEGETABLES, OR CONTROL WHETHER OR NOT CHEMICALS ARE PUT ON THEIR FOODS. ANOTHER ADVANTAGE IS BEING ABLE TO GROW THE VARIETIES OF VEGETABLES, THEY MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO FIND IN THEIR GROCERY STORE. FREDRICK SHERARD ENJOYS THE FRESH VEGETABLES AND FRIENDSHIPS, HE'S GROWN THROUGH THE URBAN GARDENING PROGRAM.
>>>SHERARD: The community garden's so important for at least three different reasons. Number one, you grow those delicious, luscious vegetables that you can take home and prepare and cook. Secondly you have vegetables that you can give away, and make friends. No better way to make friends than with vegetables, in the garden. Another thing is, you--therapy. Health therapy. When you're out here working in the sunshine and working in the soil, you're back down to nature, and you also working against all the ills that your body might have from anything from rheumatism, to arthritis, to keeping busy, and to keep yourself gainfully busy, so that you don't recognize that you even have pain. This takes away the pain, as well as produces vegetables for the table.
>>>CLARICE KING - URBAN GARDENER: I enjoy every bit of it. Every bit of it, and I have arthritis so bad, and I can get out here and start working in the sun till I'm too warm for comfort, and all the pain goes away, and I get lost, I don't know where I'm at. Because I enjoy every minute of it, and then I enjoy eating it.
>>>DANIELS: I've had retired couples, where the man got out and worked in the garden, and the woman said to me one day, his wife said, "Gee, I'm glad you got him interested into gardening, he was driving me nuts!" You know, he's retired, he doesn't have anything to do, he can get out in that garden and putter, and he really enjoys it. Other people say, "Gee, you know, this is the perfect exercise, just what my doctor ordered.
>>>IT DOESN'T MATTER WHETHER YOU'RE APPROACHING THE GOLDEN YEARS, OR STILL IN YOUR TEENS, SPENDING TIME IN A GARDEN AND SEEING THE SEEDS YOU'VE PLANTED TURN INTO FRESH VEGETABLES, FLOWERS, OR HERBS, IS SOMETHING ANYONE CAN ENJOY. IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN STARTING A COMMUNITY GARDEN IN YOUR AREA, LOOK FOR AN EMPTY LOT THAT AN ORGANIZATION MIGHT LET YOU USE. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ACCESS TO A WATER SOURCE THAT THE OWNER WILL ALLOW YOU TO USE OR SHARE THE COST WITH, AND REMEMBER TO CALL YOUR LOCAL EXTENSION AGENT FOR ADVISE ON WHAT TO PLANT AND HOW TO GET YOUR GARDEN STARTED.
>>>MY FIRST VISIT WITH ED AND SYLVIA BLUE WAS ON A ROUTINE SATURDAY MORNING IN THE SPRING OF 1995. THESE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA MASTER GARDENERS START THE DAY BY PICKING UP A SUPPLY OF PLANTS AND HEADING TO LEE COUNTY'S LAKES PARK. IT'S HERE THAT THEY TOOK ON THE CHALLENGE OF TURNING AN OLD QUARRY SITE FILLED WITH INVASIVE EXOTICS LIKE AUSTRALIAN PINES, INTO A BEAUTIFUL GARDEN. BUT THIS ISN'T AN ORDINARY GARDEN. THESE PLANT VARIETIES WERE CHOSEN SPECIFICALLY FOR THE WAY THEY SMELL, WHICH IS WHY IT'S CALLED A FRAGRANCE GARDEN.
>>>SYLVIA BLUE -MASTER GARDENER - LEE COUNTY EXT.: Three years ago we were young, so we were determined we were going to clear out the Brazilian Pepper, the Australian Pine and the melaluecas, which are invasive trees. And clear the area to put in basically fragrant plants and anything that was not fragrant was to be a native, because we knew it would be a lot of maintenance if we put anything else in.
>>>THE BLUES STARTED THIS PROJECT IN 1992, TO CREATE AND AREA WHERE PEOPLE WHO ARE VISUALLY IMPAIRED OR PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED CAN VISIT AND ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING IN A GARDEN. ONE OF THE PATHS FOLLOWS ALONG 56 PLANTERS, EACH FILLED WITH AN HERB OR COLORFUL ANNUAL FLOWER OFFERING DIFFERENT FRAGRANCE AND FEEL. THE PLANTERS LEAD TO AN AREA CALLED MEMORY LANE, WHERE PEOPLE HAVE DONATED TREES COMMEMORATING SPECIAL OCCASIONS.
>>>BLUE: We've been promised one for the birth of a person's first grandchild. Many of the trees planted were in memory of people who have died. One was planted in honor of their parents 40th. wedding anniversary. Ah the last one that was planted was a live oak which was donated by a gentleman who had a heart transplant. He's a recipient of someone else's heart, and he planted the tree in honor of the organ donors who donated, or the members of his group called the organ recipients are donating trees in several different areas.
>>>THE FRAGRANCE GARDEN IS MAINTAINED SOLELY THROUGH VOLUNTEERS LIKE MAX HELPING TO PLANT GROUND COVER, ED GETTING A HAND CLEARING OUT SOME OF THE EXOTICS, OR SYLVIA KEEPING FLOWER AND HERB BEDS LOOKING THEIR BEST.
>>>BLUE: I had a group of visually impaired youngsters here, and I knew that there was a swallowtail larvae in here, and I wanted them to see it, so I took them down, and I guided them with their hands, and I said 'Don't be afraid, the caterpillar won't harm you. But it was a hot day, and they feel so nice and cool, try it...' So the one little girl touch it, and then she got down on her hands and knees, right here, put her arms around the parsley plant, and hugged it, and said 'Thank you so much for feeding the butterflies.' It was absolutely adorable.
>>>BUT THE REAL TEST OF THE GARDEN'S APPEAL IS A VISIT FROM THE CENTER FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERSONS GROUP . SYLVIA PROUDLY TAKES THE LEAD IN SHOWING OFF SOME OF HER EFFORTS.
---(But this is the part that smells, the leaves, just crush them and smell... there you go,,,)---
>>>PAT KOBY HAS BEEN BLIND SINCE SHE WAS IN HER TEENS AND SAYS LOSING HER SIGHT HAS SHARPENED HER OTHER SENSES.
>>>PAT KOBY - CENTER FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED: When I can't see something I like to get out there and get in the middle of it. I want to touch it, and smell it, and those things,
---(Oh yes, yes...)---
>>>KOBY: I guess you'd say for blind people we go out and we look at these things, but we look with our fingers, and it's amazing the different textures, and the fragrances, and the-the whole way that it's all put together.
---(If I had more tours, my garden would be pruned)---
---(Laughter)---
---(Now crush the leaf and smell it and pass it on to the next one....
---(Oooooooo!)---
---(Crush and smell... and pass it on. It's called a piper.... Smells like licorice or sassafras, right!)---
>>>BLUE: In-between the areas where the trellises are in the arbor there are open pockets where we've planted plants that are pleasant to touch or to crush the leaves and smell.
---(Touch, touch this, run you hand along the leaves... Oooo, Is that exciting ? Yeah. Feel this... What's this? It's called the necklace pod.)--
>>>EVERYTHING IN THE GARDEN IS MARKED WITH SIGNS IN REGULAR PRINT AND IN BRAILLE, SO BLIND VISITORS CAN READ WHAT THEY ARE SMELLING AND FEELING.
>>>KOBY: This is really unique I think for this part of the country. It's just wonderful. I wish more people would take advantage of it, and I think even the sighted people don't realize that this is here and-and what a nice thing it is, I think they would enjoy coming out too.
>>>ED&SYLVIA BLUE: We both would like to keep at it as long as we can. And when we can't, we won't. In spite of the fact that there are times when we're both so frustrated we say to heck with it, we're not going there anymore, and then along comes a little girl like that one I told you cuddled the caterpillar, and thank you parsley for making food for the caterpillar, you see something like that and just makes you say, go on, look at the reaction you're getting, stay with it, and here we are. Every Wednesday and every Saturday.
>>>MY NEXT VISIT WAS ON A WEDNESDAY, IN THE FALL OF 1996. IT HAD BEEN NEARLY FIVE YEARS SINCE THE BLUES DREAM GARDEN HAD GROWN INTO A REALITY. SYLVIA REMEMBERS WELL HOW IT ALL BEGAN, STARTING WITH THE COUNTY COMMISSION.
>>>BLUE: And when we said to them, we're not asking for any money, this will be all volunteers, donations and grants, we need no funding from the county except maybe occasionally the big machinery which we don't have, which would help us with whatever we would need. The five of them looked at one another, and for the first time since I've known them, and we used to attend their meetings weekly. They looked at one another, five big smiles, no discussion, 'Go for it'.
>>>THEN CAME CHOOSING THE SITE AT LAKES PARK.
>>>BLUE: And we came to this area and I heard water running. It was the lake over flowing the weir. I said 'Hey, if I hear that, blind people are going to hear that, I think this is it.'
>>>THERE WERE MANY DELIGHTFUL ADDITIONS AWAITING THIS RETURNING VISITOR, INCLUDING A CACTUS GARDEN MAINTAINED BY MASTER GARDENER RICHARD MCCONVILLE.
---(music)---
>>>RICHARD MCCONVILLE -MASTER GARDENER - UF LEE CO. EXT.: Sylvia gave me the area here to build a cactus garden and so I was able to collect cactus from volunteer groups and then we purchased some from some funds I got from the rotary club and we had a group come in an rearrange the dirt here to set it up. This is mainly a succulent garden, and cactus are part of the succulent family, We've got both North and South American cactus and we have Euphobias which is Old World cactus, so we're bringing them all together and trying to get the cactus, that are desert cactus to be able to grow in our environment. There are fragrant flowers in the cactus garden and they flower from time to time throughout the year. It's pretty to see, and the object is not only to satisfy the blind people, but also the people who are with them, that come in and they can tell them about it and they can enjoy it also through voice. So what we do is try to get as much color for them, so the people with the person is enjoying it as much as the blind person is.
>>>ANOTHER NEW AREA IS THE FERN WALK.
>>>BLUE: When I discovered the beds of fern, which are literally beds of ferns with a few interspersed from another bed with the masses of one kind in one area and another kind right next to it. I decided that that was going to be my fern walk. As a matter of fact, if you look at our brochure, the map has that marked as the fern walk.
>>>WHILE DONATIONS AND GRANTS PROVIDE FINANCIAL SUPPORT, IT'S THE SMALL GROUP OF DEDICATED VOLUNTEERS DOING THE PHYSICAL WORK THAT REALLY KEEPS THIS GARDEN GOING, AND THEY'RE IN SHORT SUPPLY.
>>>BLUE: The help is not easy to come by. Not everybody wants to come in and work like a beaver like we have been doing for five years, but if they knew how very gratifying it is when you see a group of blind people come in here and go through the arbor and touch a plant and say 'Ooooooo, it feels like velvet, this is so nice, I never knew there was a plant like this.' It makes you just go on and on and people coming up and saying 'Oh, you've done such a wonderful job.' And they react the way we hoped they would, so we keep going.
>>>STEPHEN BROWN - UF LEE CO. EXT. - HORTICULTURE AND AGRICULTURE: The volunteers act as our extension, and their doing projects that we would normally do , but we don't have the time, we're crowded with other activities to do. Therefore they go the extra mile for us and allow us to have a more visible presence in the community. This fragrance garden is done in conjunction with the county government , so therefore working together with them in something so special and so communal, I think, is an absolute necessity.
>>>SYLVIA'S MOST HEARTWARMING MEMORIES COME FROM THE STORIES BEHIND MORE THAN EIGHTY TREES PART OF MEMORY LANE.
>>>BLUE: And it's fascinating because we meet people from all walks of life, some of them tell us of their happiness and some of them tell us of their losses, and I learn about people and learn about their likes and dislikes as far as trees are concerned.
>>>ONE OF THE MOST TOUCHING STORIES IS THAT OF A FAMILY WHO LOST THEIR 3 YEAR OLD SON, MIKEY.
>>>BLUE: They came in with two little trees that were no more than 10 inches tall and we had just created this new area where the trees had recently been removed and there was a big pile of mulch there with nothing leveled or anything, and I looked at the man and I just had a feeling, I said, "Would you like to plant your own son's tree ?' He said, 'Yes I would very much.' And he did plant it and he planted the other one. And they had their other son with them, and I said 'This should be a good spot for it', and the child said 'Mikey's going to make it grow,' and then I found out this was a three year old child for whom they were putting in the memorial. Two weeks later I came in and low and behold there were annuals planted at the base of the tree, and so I called Mrs. Billheimer and I told her that those annuals are going to need watering everyday until they're established and she says, 'I know, I'm coming in three times a week to water it, and you said you'd water it two days a week,' she said 'Do you think that will be enough?" and I said 'Yes.' Well, I came in one day and there she was watering the trees. She said, 'You have no idea what wonderful therapy this is for me. Mikey still lives for me.' Those trees are now ,a year later, more than doubled in size, the annuals are still there flourishing. People come in, they say 'Oh that's Mikey's tree, my friend's just lost her child seven years old, and she wants to plant a tree. Can you reserve a spot near Mikey's?' Well, I now have what I call my nursery, my children's area, where I plant nothing but trees for children. It hurts me to have to do it, but if it does them a lot of good, I do it.
>>>AT AGES SEVENTY-NINE AND EIGHTY FOUR, YOU'D THINK SYLVIA AND ED BLUE WOULD BE READY TO STOP WORKING SO HARD, BUT THEIR INSPIRATION IS UNYIELDING. THEY'RE EFFORTS HAVE TAUGHT US, YOU DON'T ALWAYS NEED EYES TO SEE, FINGERS AND NOSES WORK TOO. IT'S THESE OTHERS PROGRAMS LIKE THEM ORGANIZED THROUGH UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE ARE ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO GET INVOLVED, AND MAKE THEIR COMMUNITY BETTER FOR EVERYONE.
>>>FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SUBJECTS SEEN TODAY ON IMPACT, AND A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO IMPACT MAGAZINE, WRITE TO IMPACT, P.O. BOX 110190, GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA, 32611-0190. OR CALL 352-392-0437. TRANSCRIPTS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FOR SIX DOLLARS. VIDEO COPIES ARE TWELVE DOLLARS. VISA AND MASTERCARD ARE ACCEPTED. AND REMEMBER TO VISIT OUR WEB PAGE FOR MORE ON UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA RESEARCH AND EDUCATION.
>>>IMPACT... A WEEKLY LOOK AT ISSUES AND ANSWERS THAT IMPACT OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US. IT'S PRODUCED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES.