Boxerwood Gardens: Nature Center and Woodland Garden
It has been more than 25 years since KB and I fell stark-raving in love with Boxerwood. Each of us was lured with different bait and it took different traps, but we were caught. KB responded to Bob Munger and his garden - to all the trees and yes, even the work. I felt called by the deep spirit of the place. For me, everywhere I went in the garden I found deep mystery, fullness, and beauty.
In 1996, through the generosity of Betty Munger and family and the willingness of a bank, we began a journey. We had permission to say we owned a portion of Bob Munger’s Boxerwood and the privilege to use the rest. We had bet our lives on it. We had swum way out into the deep ocean of potential and probability to meet and catch the wave that would be Boxerwood’s future.
For a year and a half, we stated our intentions and worked elsewhere to pay the mortgage. People would visit the garden and our open home in our absence. Nothing was ever taken. In 1998, we decided things were moving too slow and we were going to need help. So I created a website. Soon a young Oberlin co-ed majoring in environmental education, wrote saying she had seen our site and wondered if she could do her winter project here. She could. She created a curriculum for students in grades K-5 that was aligned with the Virginia Standards of Learning.
When she finished, she wondered out loud what would become of her efforts. I told her it was a miracle that we were here and a miracle that she was here. So I just had to believe the next perfect person was on their way. Almost immediately, Mollie Messimer came by in need of a site for a grant that had been written, but the who that was to administer it had life changing events and the where was threatened by construction. She wondered what we were up to.
I shared the Oberlin student’s work and Mollie was inspired. The student had pointed out the exquisite educational potential of this place. In the spring of 1999, Mollie brought her grant and the children from Central Elementary School. The results were magical. We had been launched. Inspired by the success, late in 1999 Mollie Messimer and I applied for a 501(c)(3) status. We shopped for a board and founded the Boxerwood Education Association, Inc. I would be the Executive Steward; Mollie would be the Educational Steward; and KB, the Garden Steward.
For 10 years, a long, miraculous line made up of the perfect person with the perfect talents and perfect skills arrived at the perfect time to generously share their time and energy. It has been an amazing chain - each link absolutely indispensible. Just look where they have brought us.
And now, after riding the wave for 10 years and allowing others to believe I was administering the process, it is time for me release the effort and simply spend more time just being in the ocean.
It has been my honor to be the Executive Steward of Boxerwood. I am honored and deeply touched that the board, the staff, our volunteers, and friends have chosen to advance the spirit of art and creativity I know lurks here at every turn. I have been longing to do something like this for years. Now that the economy is likely to push the arts out of our local schools’ budgets, it becomes important—even necessary— that we do it now.
Onward and thank you.
Hunter Mohring