Far Up In The Hills...

Far up in the hills of Georgia stands,

Old Berry tried and true

The Shrine of many a memory of 

The Silver and the Blue.

Our loyalty and love we pledge, 

God keep thee without fail,

Be thou the light that shines for right, 

Alma Mater, Hail, All Hail!

Early today I had some time and tried to sit down and post these pictures to the blog of some of the on-going clean-up efforts at our beloved Alma Mater. For whatever reason the internet wouldn't let me upload them at the time. Anyways, Andy came home and brought in the mail and when he did there was an envelope from Berry addressed to us with the writing,"At 8:32 a.m. on April 27, intense winds blasted through the Berry Campus...". Guess it was a sign I should try and post my pictures again. 

In a previous post I commented about how the trees on campus are one of the things that makes Berry so special. Over 500 trees fell that day. The reality is that when you are the worlds largest college campus, in acres, there is no way to know how many trees actually fell that day. Most likely thousands across the 26,000+ acres that make up Berry. I am so very thankful that they've decided to create a fund to be able to help restore the campus. One of the most beloved trees on campus fell, the Graduation Tree, which has presided over countless spring commencement exercises. Thankfully, far up in the hills Old Berry still stands. It's one of the reasons why I'm so grateful that we still live in Rome because we get to spend as much time on campus as we want. Two years ago, in a previous post, I wrote the following, "I love the fact that we live so close to Berry. I love the fact that when I’ve had a long day I can retreat to the campus that I’ve loved since I was a little girl because somewhere in those 26,000 acres my soul finds rest. " That statement continues to ring true. It is my hope and prayer that our children would have a special bond with the campus that I so dearly love. 

Here are some pictures I took a few weeks back of the clean-up efforts around campus:

Some of the damage at the tennis courts...I can't get over the poles in a wave pattern.

Where the big patch of dirt is in the middle of the picture is where the graduation tree use to reside. It was a massive Willow Oak that was over 80 years old. That building is the Greene Building and it is home to the Campbell School of Business. Andy spent the bulk of his time in this building.

This is the service entrance to Berry and during the week it is open for people to drive up and down. As you drive down it, away from campus, the President's House faces you. In this picture there are still so many trees down you can't even see President Briggs' house. The service entrance is a favorite spot among students, faculty, and alumni. It use to be completely tree lined and had the most gorgeous fall foliage you've ever seen. It was my favorite way to enter/leave campus in the fall. I need to dig through my college photos to pull out a picture of it in all its glory. I had specifically not taken any pictures of AG at this site yet because I was hoping for us to do some this fall as a family with our photographer. Sadly, that won't happen now....at least not at this particular spot.

Since these photos were taken they've cleared out even more of the trees on the service entrance.

This use to be Dorothy Cottage. The cottage area on campus is a century old and these are some of the first buildings on campus built by students. The cottage area is also home to Barnwell Chapel and the Child Development Center.

This is Julia Cottage and it was cut in half by multiple trees. It is used as faculty housing. 

Old, old trees waiting to be picked up.

After World War 1 Martha Berry had an allee created to memorialize the 11 Berry boys that died in the war. This road is known as Memorial Drive and it was planted with oaks. Over the years disease and drought had taken out about 1/3 of the trees. During this last year they had begun to replace these trees with new ones, Willow Oaks, and then they would take down the old ones every so often. Well the storm helped them with this project as you can see by this picture.

If you want to see more pictures taken immediately after click here and here.