Penn State Senior Class Gift to Fund Arboretum Pollinators’ Garden Entry Gate

Penn State’s Class of 2019 will fund the Arboretum Pollinators’ Garden Entry Gate as its Class Gift, chosen by seniors who voted on three options throughout last week.

“The Class Gift connects your class to every Penn State class before you and every Penn State class that comes after you,” Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Rich Bundy said.

This year’s Class Gift is exactly what it sounds like — an entry gate to the new Pollinators’ Garden at the Arboretum.

Construction on the Pollinators’ Garden will begin in 2019 to create an environment at the Arboretum for Penn State researchers to focus on pollinators and seek strategies to mitigate their rapid decline.

“We are now at the peak of Pumpkin Spice Latte season, but there are no PSLs without pollinators,” Bundy joked. The rest of the garden has also been funded by major gifts to the university.

The project was announced earlier this year after a series of gifts from State College’s Charles ‘Skip’ Smith totaling $4.5 million. The garden also received a $1 million gift from Galen and Nancy Dreibelbis. 

Smith’s lead gift of $10 million enabled initial construction of the Arboretum in 2009, and he and his sons also recently committed $1.8 million for construction of a new bird garden.

The Pollinators’ Garden Entry Gate was chosen over two other finalists that seniors could’ve voted for: the LGBTQA+ Student Resource Center Emergency Fund and the WorkLink Scholarship Endowment.

“In choosing to enhance the pollinators garden with an entry gate, the class of 2019 has expressed its deepest commitments to sustainability and the environment,” Class Gift Director Tom Beeby said.