Bullington Board Fall 2021

Last year, we received a grant from Dogwood Health to have a master plan created. The landscape architecture team from Siteworks Studios got to work in drawing up a conceptual plan, and while there are several phases before this plan is complete, the work revealed the importance of owning the property if we were to make significant investments in it. With this understanding, we set our sights on land ownership.

The twelve acres that we’ve managed as Bullington Gardens was given by Bob Bullington upon his death in 1989 to the school system. We’ve enjoyed a win/win partnership between Henderson County Public Schools, the Henderson County Education Foundation, and Henderson County Cooperative Extension. But in order to grow, we need to invest. In order to invest, we need to own.

We were so very fortunate to have productive and collaborative help from Henderson County Education Foundation’s Director Summer Stipe, and on June 28th we closed on the property. With this signing, we took a giant leap into the next phase of our growth. Our master plan will be in the works for some time, but we’ve identified two areas that have shown our growing pains. The need for more parking and for public restrooms.

Over the next few years, we will look at how to implement each of these and some hard work will begin as we raise the funds needed to keep us serving Henderson County.

For now, we are enjoying the very satisfying results of 31 years of dedication and hard work and the gold key that hangs on the wall as a symbol of our new acquisition.