At Tech, Campbell company sowing life on hallowed ground

BLACKSBURG — Students dodged wheelbarrows of holly and stepped around piles of pansies on Virginia Tech’s Drillfield on Thursday morning as they passed the memorial for their fallen classmates.

Most paid little attention to the men from Southern Landscape Group of Evington as they arranged inkberry holly, Gulf Stream Nandina, yellow and purple pansies and dwarf burford holly in a semi-circle around the 32 gray stones.

Mark Maslow and his partner, David Moon, have done work at the university before, but this job — expanding and adding color to the memorial of the worst school shooting in U.S. history — means more to them than most.

Maslow, Moon and the company’s landscape manager, Chris Mays, are all Virginia Tech graduates. As Hokies, the shooting that marred their campus struck hard.

“To me, this has nothing to do with the money,” Maslow said. “That’s important, but to me it’s about being here with all these Hokies, showing them what this means to me — what my alma mater means to me.”

The memorial was put together so quickly last year that there wasn’t time to consider the landscaping around it, said Matthew Gart, landscape architect for the university.

Some complained that the memorial was stark and lacked color, he said. That’s where the holly, the pansies and Southern Landscape came in.

These types of projects have to be put out for bids and Southern Landscape comes in with a low price and a reputation of quality work.

“I trust them to do a good job,” Gart said.

Southern Landscape planted 650 flowers and shrubs Thursday. The university is expecting people to start visiting the memorial this weekend as the one-year anniversary approaches.
“It’s kind of emotional,” Maslow said. “I’ve spent four years here cultivating my career. This school means a whole lot to me. The people, this campus, the atmosphere — played a great part in my career.”

For Maslow, it is important to be a part of the memorial.

He was in his office April 16, when Moon popped into his office and told him someone had a gun on campus. About an hour later he learned the complete scope of the shooting. He said he watched the news almost constantly the seven days following the shootings.

He was hit with myriad emotions — confusion, sadness, anger and grief.

“There was so much going through my head,” he said.

Maslow’s father also graduated from Virginia Tech.

“He never told us that we had to go here, but we were around it enough that when I had to make the decision, it was easy. I knew I was going. My sister joined me two years later.

“This is still a hell of a university. I hope I can talk my kids into going here.”

Landscaper Chris Mays graduated the same year as Maslow. He had no real connection to the college before he decided to attend. But the school quickly became a part of him.

“It was several years after I left, but you wonder,” Mays said. “You don’t know if anyone you knew was hurt. Why did this happen to a place that I love and cherish so much.”

Mays made the choice to attend Virginia Tech, he said, because it is a great university and it was close to home.

He was headed to a landscaping job when he heard about the shootings. He stuck close to the radio.

“It kind of pulled me away from work,” Mays said. “This is a place our company cherishes.”

Mays said this job was particularly important to him to be involved in something that memorializes his fellow Hokies who died in the shootings.

“I hope the university and the families can hold this dear to them,” Mays said. “I will remember forever.”

PHOTO BY CHET WHITE/THE NEWS & ADVANCE
Mark Maslow (right) co-owner of Southern Landscape Group in Evington, Va., and Matt Gart, landscape architect for Virginia Tech University, make their way past the April 16 Memorial in honor of those killed in last year's shooting. Southern Landscape Group spent Thursday landscaping the grounds that surround the memorial, including 500 pansies.