Pony-up for literacy
Jerry with his daughter
Pony-Up for Literacy. You will be giving the gift of reading to someone, and a child will thank you.
Jerry de Gryse was born in Detroit, trained as a landscape architect in Minnesota, is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, and is a Director of Inspiring Place in Hobart where he has practiced for more than forty years. He is a family man, in terms of raising a daughter with his wife, who is a Tasmanian academic, of his close ties back to the USA, and in terms of his family of friends and colleagues who he continues to inspire.
At heart Jerry is a reader of books, and is deeply connected to both his profession and to place from his reading. When his daughter was growing up, her formative experiences were not only of being showered by books, but of her Dad reading them to her for many years, and of him falling asleep next to her in the middle of his made up stories. He began telling her the story of American landscape painting as he rocked her as a new born in his arms in the delivery room. He told her great stories of Genghis Khan, Gaius Marius and other adventurers.So it makes sense to me that Jerry would support our literacy work at Connect42 and congratulate us as we grow and succeed.
We are grateful for his support. It is an inspired and kind hearted move by Jerry to offer to cut off his character-defining pony tail which he has sported for forty years in order to raise funds for literacy to enable more parents to share stories with their children. He will be doing this on March 19 just prior to celebrating his 70th birthday.
Jerry is a big-hearted adult-version boy-next-door. He is a contributing citizen who continues to transform place for the better in Tasmania and beyond. He is an elder in his profession, sharing what he has learned, mentoring the next generation of place makers. We're grateful for his out-in-the-marketplace offer of helping Connect42 Pony Up for Literacy through this great idea of operation goodbye ponytail! Do support him. Supporting #100PerCentLiteracy for Tasmania as you do. https://www.givar.com/campaigns/pony-up-for-literacy
Rosalie Martin, Founder