Chris Mayer Share

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The Gar­dens of Mat­ter Park holds its beau­ty thanks to a small team of vol­un­teers in addi­tion to its employed care­tak­ers. One of those vol­un­teers is Chris May­er, a Mas­ter Gar­den­er, Advanced Mas­ter Nat­u­ral­ist, and Gar­dens helper of about five years. Essen­tial­ly any­thing stained is the work of May­er, from the Mead­ow pavil­ion to the Children’s Gar­den to the fenc­ing sur­round­ing the 6‑plus acres of lus­cious land­scape. He has also tack­led oth­er projects such as clean­ing out and paint­ing the frog stat­ue foun­tain with the help of his grand­son, and water­ing, espe­cial­ly dur­ing his first cou­ple of years to help the staff keep every­thing health and beautiful.

Gar­dens employ­ees, Taylere McCoy and Julie Fauser, share high grat­i­tude toward May­er. ​“Chris is an incred­i­bly valu­able vol­un­teer at the Gar­dens of Mat­ter Park. He is ded­i­cat­ed and hard­work­ing, and helps make the Gar­dens look spec­tac­u­lar. We’re so grate­ful to have his help!”

May­er is a Mar­i­on res­i­dent raised in Upland. He attend­ed East­brook High School, then lat­er earned a GED then associate’s degree at the Vet­eri­nary Tech­ni­cian Insti­tute of Ft. Wayne. He worked about four years as a vet tech in Ful­ton Coun­ty, then changed careers to work at Atlas Foundry in Marion.

When asked why he chose to ded­i­cate his free time toward the Gar­dens, he respond­ed, ​“To give back. I appre­ci­ate all the work they do, and it’s a great asset to the community.”

May­er is usu­al­ly at the Gar­dens vol­un­teer­ing a cou­ple times a week. 

Oth­er times, he’s build­ing habi­tats for wildlife and doing oth­er var­i­ous projects at the Sala­m­onie Inter­pre­tive and Nature Cen­ter through the Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources.