iHi
Page 10 / Wednesday, April 16, 2008
The Penduliirri
Features
ANGIE LOVELACE I Photo Editor
Sophomore John Hitchcock weeds his plot of land over the
weekend at the Elon Community Garden. Hitchcock serves as the
garden’s assistant director, teaching his peers lessons including
how to grow a “pizza garden."
Garden FAST FACTS
LOCATION: Behind the Vera Richardson Truitt Center
for Religious and Spiritual Life
COST: Plots range fronn $5 to $20
gthumbin’
S to make somethin’
Student gardeners create and maintain the community garden in the
shadow of the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life
Sarah Beth Costello
Reporter
In the side yard of the
Truitt Center is an oasis of
plump strawberries, ripe
melons and thick zucchinis
grow, seemingly oblivious to
the drought affecting North
Carolina. Members of the Elon
Community Garden tend their
plots while friendships grow.
There are no prerequisites
for those who want to rent
a plot. Gardeners don’t need
experience or any gardening
knowledge.
“[The garden] is open to
anyone as long as you consider
yourself a member of the
community,” said junior
Breanna Detwiler, director of
the Elon Community Garden.
About 95 people from Elon are
involved with the garden.
“There are about 10 people
who you can be pretty sure
you’ll see on a given week,”
Detwiler said. “There are other
people who are there, but not
there every week.”
Though gardening is a
time-consuming endeavor,
many students, faculty, staff
and community members
are involved in the garden.
Biology professor Antonio Izzo
recently rented a plot. Izzo saw
an advertisement on E-net for
the garden and immediately
signed up.
When Izzo was a graduate
student at the University of
California-Berkeley, he was
involved with a community
garden.
“The thing I thought was
neat about it was it was like an
oasis, and I was exposed to a
tremendous amount of variety,”
he said.
As a father, Izzo appreciates
the educational aspect of the
garden. He said his children
are learning that food must be
grown; it doesn’t just appear.
He enjoys working together
as a community and forming
friendships with the other
gardeners.
Students are taking
advantage of the community
garden as well. Many are
involved through organizations
like the Sierra Club and
Students for Peace and Justice.
Freshman Shana
Cooperstein rented a plot
for the spring semester.
Though she doesn’t have
gardening experience, she
decided to rent a plot because
of encouragement from her
professors to be “greener.”
Cooperstein has not begun
planting yet because of the
rain, but she hopes to plant
strawberries and flowers.
“IThe garden] is something I’d
like to share with my friends,”
she said. “It will be fun.”
Many others have also
volunteered their time. The Elon
Grounds crew provides seeds
and leaves for the soil, and
members from the faculty/staff
and the Elon College Fellows
Living-Learning Community
volunteer their time.
The community garden is a
venue for meeting new people
and learning new things.
Detwiler and sophomore
John Hitchcock, the garden’s
assistant director, hold
workshops and work days.
Sometimes members of the
garden take field trips to a
local farmer’s market.
“We teach [the other
gardeners] how to do
something fun,” Hitchcock
said. Recent lessons include
how to create a “pizza garden”
by growing basil and tomatoes.
According to Detwiler,
the community garden was
created to provide food for the
Good Shepherd’s Kitchen. This
organization, run by Allied
Churches of Alamance County,
provides meals for the homeless
and other individuals who can't
afford lunch. Last year, the
gardeners were able to provide
an abundance of food to the
Good Shepherd’s Kitchen.
Detwiler and Hitchcock
have new goals for this year's
harvest. They have created the
Food for Families program, and
said they hope the program
will provide healthy, nutritious
food to local families in need.
For students interested
in becoming involved but
lacking a green thumb, Izzo
recommends growing zucchini,
a vegetable he says anyone can
grow regardless of ability.
Student starts stunt driving
after driver’s safety course
Laura Wainman
Reporter
Justin Berger has turned a life-long
love for cars into an exciting, though
dangerous, hobby. This freshman loves
stunt driving.
Berger says his interest in stunt
driving began when he took a Teen
Safe Driving course. Once he learned
that he could control cars, he began to
pursue stunts.
For now, stunt driving is just a hobby
for Berger, who hasn’t yet driven in
any competitions or races, but said he
definitely wants to pursue more stunt
driving opportunities in the future.
“I wouldn’t necessarily recommend
that anyone else participate in this
activity,” he said. “But if I could make
stunt driving my career, 1 definitely
would.”
Berger’s most memorable moment
of stunt driving did bring him to
the brink of injury. He attempted his
favorite move, a reverse 180, in an area
not big enough for the move. His car’s
engine stalled, the braking system
locked, the power steering was gone
and the car stopped right before going
over a hill.
“I’ve never been injured while
driving and my knowledge of how to
control a car has actually helped me
a lot,” Berger said. “I had an accident
once, but it would have been much
worse if I didn’t know how to regain
control of the car."
Many may wonder why Berger would
want to take part in this dangerous
sport, but for Berger, the experience is
worth the risks.
“For a while I did it as a stress
reliever," Berger said. "My mind would
forget about everything else happening
in my life, and focus in on the road.
Now, I do it for the rush it gives me.”
Some other colleges, such as
Clemson and N.C. State, have Society of
Aeronautical Engineers programs that
offer students the chance to participate
in formula racing.
Under faculty guidance, the
students make their own cars then
compete in races against other schools.
Elon currently does not have any
opportunity like this for its students,
but Berger may try to instate a similar
program at Elon. He thinks it might
be difficult since the engineering
program at Elon is fairly small.
According to Berger, there are
many misconceptions surrounding
his favorite sport. For example, most
people assume that a fancy, tricked out
car is necessary to being a successful
stunt driver.
“As long as you know what you are
doing behind the wheel, you really
don’t even need a souped up car —
like in the Bourne movie series,”
Berger said. “Those cars weren’t that
special but they had excellent drivers
controlling them.”
PHOTO SUBMITTED
h’nulu
Freshman Justin Berger enjoys stunt driving so much that he risks injury, including one time
when he performed a reverse 180 and nearly sent his car over a hill.
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