Text Transcript with Description of Visuals
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| [ Music ] | Illustrations of plants sway. Text, Washington State University Extension, with the Cougar head logo. Presents. Seeds of a Movement. A gold rosette with the text, Master Gardener Program. 50 Anniversary Celebration. 1973, 2023. |
| Narrator: For 50 years, Extension Master Gardeners have helped make healthier, more beautiful communities across North America. | A sign above the entry to a garden reads, Discovery Garden. |
| Celebrating the program's golden anniversary in 2023, WSU Extension faculty and Master Gardener volunteers built a grassroots movement that is deeply rooted in locally based service. | Trees surround allotments, flower beds and a building. Roses bloom in a tidy flower bed. Next, two people stand working beside a trellis. |
| With interest in gardening blooming in the early 1970s, | A photograph of three people smiling as they stand behind a flower bed and beside a sign that reads, Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Unit. Washington State University. |
| Extension faculty faced an ever-growing demand for gardening ideas in Washington State's urban west. | A photograph of a large group of people standing in an allotment. A photograph shows a fair with a table of information and people looking around. Signs read, Master Gardener. Master Gardeners on duty. |
| Don Tapio: I was hired as an Extension program assistant in King County with WSU in 1970. | A sign on a wooden garden gate reads, Welcome Washington State University Master Gardeners. Lewis County Extension. Borst Demonstration Garden. Est 1998. Next, text on screen, Don Tapio. W S U Extension. Emeritus Faculty. Don sits in a garden chair in front of a white picket fence. |
| And as a horticultural program assistant, I answered home gardening questions. I averaged answering 105 calls per day. | A sequence of photographs shows, first, a building and the sign Lavender Lane, Flowers with the sign Cutting garden, and sunflowers in bloom. |
| You can imagine with 105 calls a day, the diversity of questions that you would get on plant diseases and insect problems. And the more questions we answered, the more questions it seemed to generate. | Pom pom flower heads flower next to a sign that reads, the Dahlia Garden. |
| Narrator: In 1973, two WSU Extension faculty members, David Gibby and Bill Scheer, had the inspiration to enlist volunteers to meet the public's need for knowledge. | A black and white photograph shows a man looking through files at a table with plants cuttings as a group of women watch. A photograph of a man and two girls in a garden. |
| David Gibby: When I started with the Western Washington Extension service, I was given the assignment to answer questions for the homeowners, basically urban horticulture, in both King and Pierce Counties. | Next, text on screen. Voice of doctor David Gibby. Co founder, W S U Master Garden Program. A photograph of David in front of a garden with flowers and trees. Black and white photographs of horticultural events. |
| We had horticultural hints that we put on air. We had television programs that we visited, and they always generated increased interest and increased pressure on the office. | Black and white photographs of horticultural events. A man points to some plant cuttings as he speaks to another man. Another photo shows three men speaking with a video camera and a sign that reads, Yard and Garden Clinic. |
| What was necessary was to somehow get something that could respond to that kind of pressure. | In a mall, a sign reads, yard problems, find your answers. Free W S U clinic. A man looks down a microscope and two others speak to members of the public. |
| Bill Scheer was one of my cohorts in the office. | A photograph of 5 people smiling at the camera. |
| I pressed him a little bit and talked to him about the idea of using volunteers and also about the name. He readily agreed. He thought it was a good idea. | A news clipping of a man looking at a plant with two other people and the headline, Right ways, wrong ways. |
| Judy Scheer: My husband, Bill Scheer, was co-founder with Dave Gibby. | In a garden, a bee collects pollen from a flower. |
| Dave had been in Germany as a Mormon missionary, and Bill had worked in Germany to perfect his language skills because his plan was to be a nurseryman in Holland. | Text, Judy Scheer. Widow of co founder Bill Scheer. Judy sits on a bench in a pergola. |
| The two of them together were both familiar with the Master Gardener program in Germany. | A man and woman turn compost. A sign reads, W S U Pierce County. Master Gardener. Demonstration Garden. A red flower rosette is painted on the sign. |
| They wanted to have a name and they came up with working with volunteers. They wanted a name that was meaningful. | Judy sits on a bench in a pergola. |
| David Gibby: Steve Lorton was a regional editor for Sunset Magazine. | A magazine title reads Sunset with the image of a chicken roasted outside over charcoal. |
| I said, "Steve, I need your help. They'd like an article written about what we're planning." I got 300 volunteers within a few days of the article coming out. | An article inside the magazine reads, Wanted, home gardeners to become Master Gardeners. Underneath, a photograph shows a man and woman next to the sign, Washington State University. |
| Narrator: As word spread, the Master Gardener team grew. | Outside a modern building, planters display cascading ferns and red flowers. |
| Starting with a trial run at the Tacoma Mall, founders organized clinics where experts or trained volunteers could answer gardening questions. | A sign on the building covered in wooden planks reads, Bellevue Botanical Garden. The image of a white flower displays above it. Two women stand at an outdoor stall named master garden program. |
| Sharon Collman: The program was initially thought up and started by Dave Gibby and Bill Scheer, who were Extension agents in King, Pierce. They split. | Next, text, Sharon Collman. W S U Emeritus Professor. Sharon sits in a chair surrounded by plants. |
| I joined sort of in the middle of the very first class. And then I started organizing the clinics. It was a lot of work. | Old photographs of the clinics with a short haired woman manning a table. A sign reads Washington State University Extension Service and a man looks down a microscope. |
| So I would be sometimes working at the office until 10:00 and getting everything ready and calling volunteers. | In the botanic garden, a woman brings two flowering plants to the women at the information stall. |
| It was obvious I wouldn't be able to keep that up. So I set it up so each clinic organized themselves. And that's pretty much how it stayed in a lot of the counties. | Sharon sits in a chair surrounded by plants. |
| Narrator: Soon, volunteers in counties across Washington State were launching their own programs. | A group of five women sit at a stall on the street with information leaflets and the banner, Washington State University, Master Gardeners. |
| Pat Munts: Our program here in Spokane started later that year, so we're actually the second or third oldest program in the country. | Text, Pat Munits, Master Gardener, Class of 2002. Pat stands in a garden. |
| And the history, it just evolved. I mean, and that's the beauty of having a volunteer core and dedicated staff who understand that, you know, things change. | Pat looks at a lettuce with a man as he removes the outer leaves. |
| It went from being mostly looking for flowers and shrubs to working with food gardens, and now we're moving, as I said, into working with climate change and understanding even broader than that. | Pat works with a group in the allotment. Pat holds chilies and a carrot in her hands. |
| Narrator: Through hard work and dedication, Master Gardener volunteers have benefited their neighbors and formed long-lasting friendships. | Pat smiles beside a crate filled with tomatoes, runner beans and squash. |
| Don Tapio: It was always an inspiration to me to be around the Master Gardener volunteers. | Three women laugh as they garden. The women working at the botanical garden stall laugh. |
| They were always so congenial, so polite, so interested, so willing to help others, so willing to learn. | An older man stands in an office holding up a string of identity cards. One reads, W S U extension. Ollie Bond Pierce County. 40 years. Master Gardener. 1978. |
| And, you know, not everybody has that kind of job experience. | A female volunteer laughs in a garden. |
| So I always pride myself in being one of the most fortunate people in the world. | Don Tapio speaks from his garden chair. |
| [ Music ] | Text, Washington State University Extension, with the Cougar head logo. |