A couple days before Bucket and Blossom day, participants that registered early for the event can go pick up a t-shirt designed by a Chatham student. Then, the day before the event, gigantic piles of mulch begin to show up on the sidewalks near garden areas on campus, signaling that the event is soon to come. This just builds up the excitement! This year, Bucket and Blossom began on Friday April 11, at 10 A.M. Everyone met on the campus near the library where we picked up our free pair of gardening gloves and a raffle ticket for prizes that were to be given away during lunch. The morning moved quickly and at 10:30 A.M. each team began working at different sites around campus. This year, my team and I worked behind the chapel area, picking up litter. Then, after we finished this, we moved near Coolidge, a building in which I have had several of my undergraduate English courses. Here, we found a huge pile of unclaimed mulch. We used rakes and shovels provided to make the soil that had been claimed by winter’s cold weather into a beautiful garden. While we worked, a couple of generous staff that were in a car stopped and offered us bottled waters to quench our thirst. After the mulch pile had been completely depleted, it was nearly noon and time to head off to Anderson dining hall for a delicious picnic-style lunch, consisting of fried chicken, baked beans, and sugar cookies, to name a few items on the menu. After the lunch, the raffle winners were announced. This year there were gift certificates to stores and restaurants like Target, Eat N’ Park, Max and Erma’s, as well as parking permits for campus (these are always a big hit)

After lunch is over, most of the crowd headed over to Spring Fling, and annual event held in the Athletic and Fitness Center. Here, there were plenty of inflatables for jumping around on just for some good ol’ fun.  I love having the day off to relieve some of the stress from exams and papers, but even more so, I love spending quality time with friends and faculty, actually doing something I love to do – gardening. Before Bucket and Blossom Day existed, this event was known as Toe Dabbling Day, a day during which it was tradition for the President of the college to be thrown into the pond by the student body. Thus, I am sure that Dr. Barazzone appreciates the present version of this annual event as much as I do too! 

If you would like to know more about Bucket and Blossom Day or about events on campus in general, feel free to e-mail me at