CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Austin Peay State University’s ‘Plant the Campus Red’ event had its genesis following a natural disaster – the 1999 January tornado that tore through campus.
An army of volunteers moved across campus, planting trees, shrubs and flowers to replace what the tornado had taken. The effort back then was called Operation Restoration.
“That tornado is why campus looks the way it does now, and has such diversity in its tree population,” Wes Powell, APSU assistant director of landscape and grounds, said.
Each spring since 1999, the event has carried on.
“It is an all-inclusive volunteer event where faculty, staff, students and the community with the Montgomery County Master Gardeners all have a chance to volunteer together,” Powell said. “That’s one of my favorite parts about it. And it brightens up campus for the spring.”
Twenty-one years later, a crisis of a different sort has hit campus, but volunteers still found a way to plant the campus red last week.
“We had a socially distant Plant the Campus Red,” Powell said. Thirty-four volunteers – students, faculty, staff and Montgomery County Master Gardeners – planted nearly 3,600 plants over four days, he said.
“It was really nice to allow people to get out of their house or dorm rooms and do something normal again,” Powell said.