Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden » npr http://www.lewisginter.org/blog 25 Years & Growing Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:04:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Tell Us Your StoryCorps http://www.lewisginter.org/blog/2012/01/25/tell-us-your-storycorps/ http://www.lewisginter.org/blog/2012/01/25/tell-us-your-storycorps/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:48:59 +0000 Jonah Holland http://www.lewisginter.org/blog/?p=4329 by  Scott Hornby, Development Writer, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Has anyone ever said something to you that was so funny, so gripping, so moving or so powerful that you wished your mind had a big, red record button?
It’s a sad comment on the state of my mind that I can recite, word-for-word, the dialogue to hundreds of episodes of The Simpsons, yet I can’t recall the details of what Mr. Whalley, my Grade 11 English teacher, said to convince me to take my writing more seriously.  Instead, I’m left with vapor: fragments of emotion and snippets of phrases that may or may not have actually been said. The specific words that changed my life have slowly evaporated over time.
But, what if there was a way to tell a great oral story and have it last?
There is.
StoryCorps is the national oral-history project that records, preserves, and shares the stories of everyday Americans.  StoryCorps basically rolls around the country with a trailer full of audio equipment recording history one 40-minute interview at a time. The resulting stories are archived in the Library of Congress and some even air on NPR.  From March 15th to March 17th, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden will be partnering with StoryCorps to record and preserve the Garden’s oral history.  The visit to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is a gift from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The IMLS and the White House recently recognized Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden as one of the country’s top five museums with a National Medal.   But, back to telling our story: we have a problem…
We can’t tell our story alone.
At its heart, the Garden is more than a plot of land with some pretty flowers. The Garden is a part of the community, and our history is therefore found in the lives we’ve touched and the memories we’ve made. To truly tell the Garden’s story, we need your story. So, we’d like to give you the opportunity to be interviewed by StoryCorps.  One interview from each of the medal winners will be edited and posted to the Institute for Museum and Library Services’ website, plus these interviews will be archived at the Library of Congress.
How has Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden touched your life? If you would enjoy telling your story,  please send us 500 words or less.  We can only choose a few to feature for our StoryCorp project, but we know your stories will be wonderful and we look forward to telling as many as we can via our blog, our website, and other social media.
The Garden will accept story entries from February 1st until midnight on February 15th, and winners will be announced February 22nd.  Update: we are now accepting submissions.
]]> http://www.lewisginter.org/blog/2012/01/25/tell-us-your-storycorps/feed/ 0 NPR Features Lives of the Trees; Lewis Ginter Features…Trees http://www.lewisginter.org/blog/2010/01/15/npr-features-lives-of-the-trees-lewis-ginter-features-trees/ http://www.lewisginter.org/blog/2010/01/15/npr-features-lives-of-the-trees-lewis-ginter-features-trees/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:33:08 +0000 Jonah Holland http://lewisginter.org/blog/?p=1210 by Jonah Holland, PR & Marketing Coordinator, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

My husband came home from work the other day, telling me I had to listen to this story on NPR — about trees. NPR was interviewing Diana Wells, author of the new book, Lives of the Trees: An Uncommon History, exploring people’s relationship with trees and the stories behind their names.  My husband knew this would interest me because, well,  I love trees.  But also because,  part of our vision  here at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is to reveal the unity and integration of human and plant life, and to celebrate the fundamental significance of the natural world in enriching our community, and this is exactly what Diana Wells does in her book.

Lives of the Trees by Diana WellsSo, if you too are a tree lover, you may enjoy this 6-minute interview. By far, the most interesting thing I learned was about the Japanese Cedar and the tradition that surrounds it, forest bathing. Apparently, today in Japan it is still common for Japanese businessmen to enjoy this ritual.

“You go into the forest and soak yourself in the trees,” she says. “I live where there are woods and I will [do that] quite often and let the trees feel as if I’m part of the forest. It’s very, very soothing — it’s beautiful.”

“It would help us if we were more familiar with trees,” Wells says. “I think if we did that, it would cement the bond, and it would help all of us. We need the trees and they need us.”

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