Job one for service day: City Park beautification
City Park, the 1,300 acre park in the heart of New Orleans, is one of Scott Bernhard's favorite places. “I love to work out there,” says the associate professor of architecture. So on March 16, he will join hundreds of Tulane employees at City Park for the Wave of Green Service Day.
It won't be his first time to take on sweaty outdoor work at the park. He participated in the August 2010 Wave of Green day as well, planting trees with “a group of women from the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine that I'd never met.” That's another plus from the service day, he says making new friends.
Bernhard already spends a lot of time at the park. As director of the architecture school's Tulane City Center, he oversees a variety of community projects, including the Grow Dat Youth Farm, one of many projects at the park that the center has handled since its origin after Hurricane Katrina.
From planting, raking and cleaning up outdoors to adding a fresh coat of paint indoors, Tulane employees make a difference all across City Park by volunteering. (Photo by Sally Asher)
He feels especially compelled to volunteer because the park depends so much on citizen support.
“It derives its support from the community that uses it,” Bernhard says. “Everyone is all that much more proud of it because they're responsible for making it happen.”
In addition, he says the service day is an important part of demonstrating Tulane's engagement in the community.
Faculty, staff, students and alumni can register here to participate in the March 16 event. Volunteers will receive a free lunch and can attend a post-event party at Turchin Stadium.
“I've really learned, doing work in the community has the most meaning for the most people when it has a meaningful result,” Bernhard says. “Of course you take it a lot more seriously when you have some dirt on you.”
He pauses, then adds: “Plus, I think it's fun, but that's just me.”
