Day of Caring

Day of Caring.

2007 PNC-United Way Day of Caring
Thursday, October 4, 2007

Photos from the 2007 Day of Caring, by Erica Nodell
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A HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who came to help
at the Centre Furnace Mansion on the PNC-United Way Day of Caring!!

I am sure that words will not do justice to all of the hard work and projects that were completed on Thursday during the PNC United Way Day of Caring, but I will give it my best!

Over 100 volunteers came from a cross section of area organizations including Centre Furnace Mansion Garden Committee and PSU Master Gardeners of Centre County, Members and Staff of the Centre County Historical Society, PSU Arborist Team, PSU Baseball Team, PSU Outreach-World Campus, Leadership Centre County, PSU Budget Office, Restek, SF& Company, Hope for Kids, Target Corporation, PSU Financial Offices, PSU Development Offices and Avis Corporation.

We cleaned, sanded, painted, planted, ripped out burly bushes, created, and destroyed...all in all a productive Day of Caring here at the Centre Furnace Mansion!!!

While we were working, a volunteer asked me if this is the kind of work [in the gardens] that would not otherwise be able to get done here. The short answer is 'YES!' I explained that, this year during the Day of Caring, over 600 hours would be given by volunteers. During the weekly sessions of the growing season, volunteer gardeners on the Centre Furnace Mansion Garden Committee are focused more on detail work in the gardens as well as developing educational aspects of the gardens. We are able to accomplish larger scale projects, some requiring more heavy duty work, that we simply are not able to get to or do at all during our weekly sessions because of either time or money.

Members of the PSU Arborist Team generously devoted their day to evaluating the trees on the Centre Furnace Mansion property, especially the large 260 year old sycamore tree, removing dead trees and branches from several trees as well as removing stumps from trees that were previously removed.

The PSU Baseball Team also donated time between classes to come and lug boxes to storage, rip out big shrubs, lug wheelbarrows full of mulch and soil amendments...oh to be that young and strong...

Dividing into various task groups, the gardens and grounds projects led by volunteers from the CFM Garden committee, we were able to complete everything that was on our wish list for the Day of Caring and much more. The following were some of the projects we finished:

The Wildlife Garden, a hedgerow of walnuts, maple, shrubs and perennials is a project begun three years ago by Landscape Contracting and Integrative Arts students Cody Brazell and Joshua Bedlo. We have been working on this area during special work times dedicated to it for the past couple of years. On the Day of Caring, volunteer team led by Chris Igo and Pam Calkins, cleared the area and planted several new plants including black locust, goldenseal, chokeberry, Solomon's Seal and Echinacea. We will continue to plant this area in the spring. The PSU Arborist Team managed to remove threatening dead branches from trees in this garden and clear the invasive honeysuckle to make way for more bird friendly native and non-invasive species of shrubs, small trees and perennials. With all of this work and the reintroduction of a martin house this spring, thanks to Bob Leonard and Miller Welding, we should be starting to notice a larger variety of birds and butterflies in the Wildlife Garden!

Thanks to Bob and Susan Urion and DOC Volunteers we now have a lovely new 'nursery garden' to over-winter extra plants for the Centre Furnace Mansion Plant Celebration in the spring. As we remove and divide plants that are taking too much space in the gardens, it is important to have a place to hold them.

Bulb Planters Suzann Tedesco and Jan Villastrigo made an encore appearance this year to lead a group that planted 1000 bulbs [up from last year's 500!] including heirloom tulips, English bluebells, daffodils, alliums, lilies and winter aconite.

Bob Leonard, Marshall Garrett and Judy Heberling led the efforts in Marian's Kitchen Garden area as well as the tool sheds and lilac beds, all of which are 100% improved! DOC Volunteers meticulously cleaned [beyond what we ever expected] the exhibit tool shed we call "Jackie's Joinery" named for CCHS President Jackie Melander! Bob managed to oversee getting a [large] iron fence and bench, both in need of repair, into one half of our [small] working tool shed and, incredibly, it looks like there is now less in there after an organization feat fitting a magician! Along with several DOC Volunteers, Marshall and Judy led a full scale bumper-crop-year walnut removal effort and, after much weeding, have Marian's Kitchen Garden and the lilac beds looking ready for another season with perennial herbs and plants clipped back and a new coating of manure! Also in this area, DOC Volunteers did a fabulous job painting doors on the new building and refinishing outdoor benches from detailed sanding to finishing.

And [closest to the desserts; an enviable assignment, indeed!]...Bonnie Walter, Katie Frieden and Jackie Melander managed the front area with the help of Day of Caring Volunteers giving the circle driveway a much needed coating of compost and manure! The Front Parlor Garden received new plantings. The ivy bed was clipped and weeded and the little beds by the front steps cleaned and improved with hosta to finish out the edges and new bulbs awaiting spring. Of course, lunch coordination for all of us was a very important aspect of this area as well!

Jo Merrill, Lisa Coggins and Vickie Spadaccio led Day of Caring Volunteers that were weeding, walnuting, removing endless seed pods from the Rose of Sharon hedge, transplanting and planting in Marjorie & Rae's Garden, the Paul Harner Garden, grass bed, Anne Coffin Johnstone Shrub Garden and the Steven Spencer Livingston Garden. They are all looking beautiful now and ready to weather the winter and come back full force in the spring!

Across the street near the furnace stack, Bob Donaldson and Christopher Sorensen worked on clearing the area around the furnace stack and marked out a future path from a master landscape plan that was done some time ago by Mark Battaglia that would connect the stack with old foundations of the buildings that supported it.

In addition to all of the outdoor projects that we were able to get done, a great deal of painting took place inside the Mansion with Angela Breeden from the Centre County Historical Society leading the way. The library trim and doors; the risers on the backs of stairs; the trim of a new window; and the trim on the woodwork in the restrooms were all given fresh coats of paint for an updated and much needed new look.

Finally, thank you to Keith Driftmeier from Merrill Lynch, our United Way Day of Caring Representative for helping out with the day, catching balls as they were about to drop! And Erica Nodell, photographer for the Day of Caring at Centre Furnace Mansion and Centre County Historical Society's Rhiannon McClintock who kept track of the never ending ever changing list of details leading up to and on the Day of Caring.

It is with great appreciation that we thank each and every person who sanded, scraped, painted, dug, planted, hauled and pruned on this special day, and we gratefully acknowledge our friends and supporters who make it possible for the participants to be with us. Without this gift, the Centre County Historical Society would not be able to continue to be the community resource that it is for all who visit. Thank you.

This year on the day of the 2007 Day of Caring, we kicked off an 'Heirloom Bulb Planting' at Centre Furnace Mansion, among other projects. We planted over 1000 bulbs that would have been available to the Thompson family that lived at Centre Furnace Mansion in the Victorian Era. Many of these bulbs are very familiar to us today, while others are less common. This planting came to us in significant part as a gift from Jackie Melander, President of the Centre County Historical Society in thanks help from the CFM Garden Committee in her home garden this summer. We will continue to build on this planting in years to come.

	The Anne Coffin Johnstone Garden 100 Narcissus Albus plenus odoratus will be be a fragrant show stopper at CFM's walkway entrance from the parking lot. Historically this small, but not shy, daffodil has been referred to as "Double Pheasant's Eye, Poet's Narcissus, Narcissus 'Poeticus', and Sweet Nancies". According to Eleanor Sinclair Rohde in her book "The Scented Garden" published in 1936, there is reference to this narcissus as far back as the French version of Dodoen's Herbal (translated by Henry Lyte in 1578)
	McLaughlin Gazebo Also fragrant and dating to the 1500's, 500 English Bluebells, or Hyacinthoides non-scripta, will soon grace Laura's Lilac Bower near the gazebo. The lilacs were a gift from Jeffrey Bower in memory of his mother, Laura, planted during the 2005 and 2006 United Way Day of Caring. Referenced in Shakespeare, English Bluebells were a very popular bulb in the Victorian Era and continue to be today. We can expect to see Jackie Melander frolicking in the Bluebells next spring!
	The Paul Harner Garden Fragrant, striking and late blooming, Lilium speciosum 'Rubrum' will brighten the Paul Harner Garden to your left and slightly up the hill after you enter the walkway from the parking lot. This lily blooms in late summer at a time when bloom in the garden is a bit less abundant. At up to six feet tall, 'Rubrum' was introduced during the early 19th century and found it's way to the United States by the 1850's.
	The Grand Front Entrance In the early spring, the sides of the Grand Front Entrance steps of Centre Furnace Mansion will be billowing with pink and white Victorian charm as 50 Tulip 'Peach Blossom' come into bloom. This heirloom is a double sport of Tulip 'Murillo', from which many of our double tulips were born. Introduced in the late 19th century, "Peach Blossom" was a popular choice in Victorian gardens.
	If flowers could be fireworks, they would be Allium shubertii! Also placed next to the Grand Front Entrance steps, this late 19th century bulb will be a late spring Victorian Era surprise!
	Margery & Rae's Garden The bright purple spheres of 100 Allium aflatunense on top of up to 30 inch stems will bridge the gap between early spring and summer bloom in Margery & Rae's Garden. Introduced in the beginning of the 20th century, this bulb quickly gained favor with late Victorian Era gardeners.
	Steven Spencer Livingston Garden A blanket of yellow will next spring cover the little garden where a dogwood tree was planted in memory of Steven Spencer Livingston. 200 Winter Aconite, or Eranthus hyemalis, bulbs will flower just before mixed daffodils donated by Marshall Garrett that were planted during the 2004 United Way Day of Caring in this garden. Marshall also donated a "Miss Kim" lilac in this garden. It will be nice to see extended bloom here since it is one of the very visible gardens as you enter near the parking lot.

Photos are used with permission from John Scheepers, Inc.