... that Folks Who Matter, who hold the purse strings & stock the coffers, aren't wild about having a farm market associated with our local college. Word on the street is they regard business majors as potent future contributors, while folks engaged in agriculture et al are doomed to a life of near (or below) poverty. The buzz is they see the college - founded on strong spiritual principles - as earning an ever higher & higher student body through our sports programs & business-related degrees.
As someone with many years experience in marketing & public relations for Prudential, I find those rumors hard to believe.
I am 63 years old, ANC Class of 1970, Bryn Athyn College Class of 1975 - over all the years between my graduations & now, hardly a single person from the nearby communities, hearing from whence I hailed, had a kind word to say about our town & schools. Now, since the high school & college gardens took center stage, so to speak, alongside the Pike, since Bryn Athyn Bounty debuted, I hear countless wonderful things from total strangers.
The Brickman Center is beautiful & draws a lot of admiring attention, but its the gardens & the farm market that people bring up to me. Oh, and the sacred arts program. They are the things that draw attention. It's unlikely that savvy business folks would miss the importance of such key differentiators.
If anything, the school gardens & the May - mid-October farm market provide recruiters with cutting edge marketing tools. Farm-to-table is a burgeoning meme - even with jocks. It offers a unique marketing edge that beautifully balances sports.
Potential students - and their parents - are looking for a great experience as well as a decent school. The gardens & the farm market appeal to the heart.
Is there any truth to the rumors flying around our little boro? Just because they seem ludicrous doesn't mean there isn't any substance to the buzz.
What an incalculable loss that would be. Yesterday, I took a grannie client to the Cheesecake Factory in Willow Grove for lunch. A waitress who was NOT our server recognized me as The Cupcake Lady & took the time over a busy lunch hour to share her enthusiasm for Bryn Athyn Bounty Farm Market.
That wholehearted response is typical of what I hear over & over in places that, like the Cheesecake Factory, have nothing to do with the college or even our community.
It's hard to believe that the farm market is that much a drain on the college budget. It has provided spectacular benefits in introducing our neighbors to the community & schools, parents who are visiting their kids are mighty impressed, and it provides a wonderful, MUCH needed gathering place for the local community.
While the coffee house gossip is the current college president isn't invested in close college/community ties, the absolute certainty of a public relations backlash to pulling the plug on the most popular event to ever sprout in our backyard should at least give him - and others - pause.
Hoping that the rumors are just that - meaningless tittle-tattle with no roots in reality.
In a reverse "interest of full disclosure" statement, please note The Cupcake Lady will not be affected if this is B.A. Bounty Farm Market's last season. John & I would rather be back at the usual stand next year, but we have options - we'd trek up to Wrightstown.
The Cupcake Lady's 2016 farm market venue? Hope not!
Ditto to everything you said! I hope the powers that be see this if it is, in fact, a true rumor. Maybe even if it isn't so they can refute it. Wouldn't that be nice?
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