Fall|Winter 2012-13 - UT Gardens - The University of Tennessee

DEVELOPMENT
Friends’ Gift to Seed New
Friendship Pavilion
By Tom Looney, director of Development
The UT Gardens is proud to announce a gift from the
Friends of the UT Gardens for nearly $60,000, which
will be used to build a new pavilion on the Knoxville
grounds. The new space will provide outdoor
instruction capabilities for public horticulture, landscape
architecture and other classes and outreach programs that
may benefit from an outdoor classroom setting. Dr. Caula
Beyl, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and
Natural Resources, has agreed for the college to match a
portion of the gift, bringing the total investment to more
than $80,000.
“This is a great opportunity to enhance our instruction
capabilities for all of our programs and will add new
ways to experience the Gardens,” Beyl said. “I applaud
the forward thinking of our Friends to identify and support
a need in the UT Gardens that can benefit our academic
priorities, while promoting our educational and
outreach opportunities.”
About three years ago, the Friends of the Gardens
became part of the UT Gardens, and the gift is an official
recognition of this new partnership, Dr. Sue Hamilton,
director of the UT Gardens said. Mary Spengler and
Dennis Superczynski, officers from the original Friends
group, suggested that this would be a great way to honor
all the support received from so many friends over the
years, and as such will be called the Friendship Pavilion.
Hamilton has been working with Spengler and
Superczynski to devise a pavilion that will appropriately
honor the friends, and they are working on a design
now. She hopes to announce a groundbreaking in the
near future.
“We are looking forward to the new space,” Hamilton
said. “All of our Gardens programming, including youth
and family activities, will benefit — and won’t it just be a
great way to relax and enjoy the Gardens!”
18 UT Gardens