Keith Davis, 4/29/2009
ITHACA, NY — Thanks to the organizing ability of Ithaca College senior Nick Tessoni, Town of Ithaca officials will join other local dignitaries on Friday, May 1, to celebrate the opening of the Town’s first community garden. The ceremony will take place at 11:30 a.m. at 200 Conifer Drive, off Route 79 West, next to Conifer Village Apartments. Consisting of plots that can be rented by community members looking for a place to ply their gardening skills, the garden was the result of an assignment in Tessoni’s “Service Learning II: Administration” class.
“The course required completing 120 hours dedicated to a management field work assignment chosen by the student,” said Linda Heyne, the associate professor of recreation and leisure studies who taught the course. “The class met once a week. The remaining course time was spent at the site being supervised by an agency representative.”
In this case, the representative was the Town of Ithaca’s Recreation and Youth Coordinator Marnie Kirchgessner.
“The task would have been daunting without Nick’s leadership and steadfastness,” Kirchgessner said. “He put together and led a team of students on the project, and, I can honestly say, without his efforts, this garden never would have happened. There was a lot more work involved than I imagined, and Nick located the right students with the right skills and wrote a successful grant proposal to support the project.”
Tessoni is a recreation and leisure studies major.
For more information and to arrange interviews and coverage, contact Linda Heyne at (607) 274-3050 or Marnie Kirchgessner at (607) 273-1721, Ext. 136.
Originally published in News Releases: Efforts Of Ithaca College Student Lead To Town Of Ithaca's First Community Garden.
