NewsLab

Twenty baseball players all huddled around what used to be a retaining wall.  Hundreds of individual cylinder stones were laid all over the Benedictine Sisters’ Angelus garden at CSS.

They were all wondering how they were going to put the wall together this year. They sat there in silence. Finally Griffin Bell, one of the upperclassmen, grabbed a two foot stone and started the wall. Everyone was watching in amazement.

Then, without a word said, another player grabbed a stone and placed it next to the first one. Then it just became a free for all. Every baseball player scampered for his own stone.

Like pieces to a puzzle, the stones began to form a wall. Everyone was working diligently, until a loud crash stopped everyone in their tracks. All of the players looked over to one of the individuals.

Mark Harber, a sophomore majoring in finance, dropped his block on the cement ground. Everyone laughed and gave Harber a hard time.

“Good hands, Harber,” one said. This was unfortunate for him, but it caused everyone to loosen up. From that point on, everyone was laughing and having a great time trying to reconstruct the Sisters’ wall.

The reason that all of these CSS baseball players were helping in the garden was because it was Wednesday, Oct. 6, Community Day, a special day for all CSS members.

It is not only a day where school is canceled, but it is a day for them to reach out to the community. Baseball players have worked on the CSS garden for the past four years. This year, the main job was to build a more stable retaining wall.

That was just one of the goals. The sisters were not shy to ask for many more favors. Some of the other favors were to rake all of the leaves, remove the dollies, trim all of the plants, edge the garden, and get the garden ready for the long Duluth winter.

Community Day has many different meanings for the players. Brian Houdek, a sophomore majoring in psychology, said, “Community day is all about coming together to accomplish the common goal of bettering the community that we live in.”

The gardens are an integral part of the CSS campus.“We use the garden for many different purposes. That is why it is so important for the baseball players to help,” Sister Kathleen Cargill MA and director of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaurate Achievement Program said.

Sister Cargill, who was the one in charge of the gardening project on Wednesday, said, “The garden is open to anyone who wants to walk through. Students can have classes out there. We want people to walk through and use it.”

The garden has been around for decades and Sister Cargill was extremely thankful to have the baseball players help out. “It’s encouraging to see a large group helping us, and saving us hours of work. We cannot do all the work the players can,” Sister Cargill said.
                                                   
Hours went by. The players continued to pull weeds, edge the garden, finish the retaining wall, rake the leaves, and trim the plants. Finally, all of the deeds were accomplished.

When the garden was finally ready for the winter and the sisters were out of favors, the baseball players all stood at the new retaining wall.

“That was my favorite thing to see out of the day. The team all looked at it together and felt good at the way it looked,” said Sister Cargill.