A visit to see Celebration

Spring arrived right on time this year and I was feeling the need to get out into the sunshine for some time to reflect and exercise. It has also been almost five years since I lost my father, the artist Norman Gardner, and I was thinking about the time we spent working on getting the sculpture project done for Hausner. So, on March 13, 2022, with the weather cooperating, I dusted off my road bike and set out for a ride. I wanted to pay a visit to “Celebration,” to see how it was holding up.

What I found was not very satisfactory. While the sculpture was in good shape, what had been truly lush and wonderful landscaping was scraggly and neglected-looking. There had clearly been some change and the plantings around the sculpture were definitely the worse for wear. Rather than healthy flowering ground cover, there were some scraggly vines and leaf-strewn dirt. Not an attractive look and far from what we expect from the school. This does not bode well for either the school or the community. I was only slightly relieved that my father would not be able to see how badly the school had followed up on its commitment to maintain the landscaping around the sculpture.