October 17, 2000

When they arrived in the morning at Jefferson and Duncan streets, just east of the medical campus, 24 members of the university's Office of Communications and Public Affairs found a weed-strewn lot surrounded by a chain-link fence. By the time they left in late afternoon, the lot was well on its way to becoming the Bea Gaddy Community Garden, courtesy of the nonprofit group Parks and People.

Getting ready to dig in are staff members from the university's Office of Communications and Public Affairs, including representatives of the Office of News and Information, 'Johns Hopkins Magazine,' 'The Gazette,' the Alumni Magazine Consortium and the Office of Design and Publications.

In one day, the team had contributed 168 hours of manual labor--enough to weed, dig beds, plant 14 trees, construct wood frames for vegetable beds and clean the streets rimming the property. Nearby buildings soon will be fixed up and turned into senior housing, and the participants in the day's activity--organized as part of the university's 125th anniversary celebration--plan to return to work on the garden's next stages.