WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

1
00:00:00.770 --> 00:00:06.220
The National Medal for Museum and Library
services is the nation’s highest honor for

2
00:00:06.220 --> 00:00:11.710
libraries and museums that are serving their
communities in exciting ways.

3
00:00:11.710 --> 00:00:17.180
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden director Frank
Robinson and community member Chris Corsello

4
00:00:17.180 --> 00:00:22.310
and his aide, Lisa Watts traveled to Washington
to receive the national medal and spoke to

5
00:00:22.310 --> 00:00:25.290
IMLS about how the museum impacts the community.

6
00:00:25.290 --> 00:00:33.730
Frank Robinson: The Botanical Garden was founded
in 1984, open to the public the first time

7
00:00:33.730 --> 00:00:34.970
in 1987.

8
00:00:34.970 --> 00:00:40.190
Its role is really very broad in the community
and in the last few years we have been very

9
00:00:40.190 --> 00:00:46.290
intentional about reaching out to serve the
community in various ways including the public

10
00:00:46.290 --> 00:00:47.290
school systems.

11
00:00:47.290 --> 00:00:52.910
Lisa Watts: I have a love of gardening and
as part of our vocational program at our high

12
00:00:52.910 --> 00:00:59.950
school, we were sort of looking for opportunities
that Chris might be able to be productive

13
00:00:59.950 --> 00:01:06.710
and one of those that was back in my mind
was Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.

14
00:01:06.710 --> 00:01:09.179
Frank Robinson: Volunteers are critical to
us.

15
00:01:09.179 --> 00:01:17.810
We have about 600 all total, they contribute
32,000 hours of labor a year.

16
00:01:17.810 --> 00:01:23.159
Chris works in the garden section and the
way he was introduced was through our plant

17
00:01:23.159 --> 00:01:26.869
sale, which the volunteers run completely
twice a year.

18
00:01:26.869 --> 00:01:31.450
They even produce the plants as well as setup
the sale and sell the plants to raise money

19
00:01:31.450 --> 00:01:32.450
for the garden.

20
00:01:32.450 --> 00:01:39.469
Lisa Watts: We worked the plant sales and
Christopher is very good at transporting plants

21
00:01:39.469 --> 00:01:42.539
for everybody that is buying the plants.

22
00:01:42.539 --> 00:01:50.399
He is quite strong so he is very helpful in
moving things; we water plants we weed in

23
00:01:50.399 --> 00:01:51.639
the garden.

24
00:01:51.639 --> 00:01:56.679
This is a typical expression you would see
when he gets out of my car and comes to the

25
00:01:56.679 --> 00:01:58.549
garden.

26
00:01:58.549 --> 00:02:05.310
Just talking about it gets him excited; it’s
almost a magical kind of thing for him.

27
00:02:05.310 --> 00:02:10.140
It’s just such an experience to have these
people embrace Chris.

28
00:02:10.140 --> 00:02:14.740
And everywhere we go in the garden people
recognize him and talk to him and he is just

29
00:02:14.740 --> 00:02:16.110
one of the gang.

30
00:02:16.110 --> 00:02:24.110
Frank Robinson: The reason we wanted to tell
his story was that he has a real purpose at

31
00:02:24.110 --> 00:02:29.670
the garden, he has a real job that he gets
to do time and again.

32
00:02:29.670 --> 00:02:38.360
And it has just obviously built his self confidence
in ways that we could not have imagined and

33
00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:46.020
at first the volunteers particularly with
the plant sale were a little hesitant to interact

34
00:02:46.020 --> 00:02:53.480
with him, didn’t quite know how to interact
and treat him, but now he has just become

35
00:02:53.480 --> 00:02:54.980
one of the gang.

36
00:02:54.980 --> 00:03:00.760
And he is very strong and so when we need
some muscle he is there and he is wonderful

37
00:03:00.760 --> 00:03:05.070
in accommodating people by helping them to
load their cars and things.

38
00:03:05.070 --> 00:03:12.900
And so this is one of those intangible things
that botanical gardens may not define themselves

39
00:03:12.900 --> 00:03:17.040
by but its that kind of experience which ends
up being so meaningful to people.

40
00:03:17.040 --> 00:03:25.290
Lisa Watts: To be able to fit in in that capacity
is wonderful for him and certainly I mean

41
00:03:25.290 --> 00:03:31.740
he is really like an ambassador for other
kids that have disabilities that want to come

42
00:03:31.740 --> 00:03:36.890
and work in an environment such as the wonderful
environment we have at Lewis Ginter Botanical

43
00:03:36.890 --> 00:03:36.990
Garden.
�