AMY WILBER INTERNS AT WIMBLEDON By Karen Cooper
Amy Wilber, a current TLI scholarship recipient and the daughter of long-time TPI member Gary Wilber of Oakwood Sod Farm in Delmar, Maryland, spent her summer taking care of one of the world’s most hallowed pieces of turfgrass—Te All England Lawn Tennis Club, more commonly known as Wimbledon. A summer in London was a far cry from her days on the sod farm moving irrigation pipe, working in the office, and mowing bentgrass fields!
Amy is majoring in Sustainable Plant Systems with a specialization in Turfgrass Science at Te Ohio State University (OSU) and knew after her freshman year that she wanted to complete an internship abroad. She investigated options through Te Ohio Program (TOP), an international exchange program specializing in horticulture, agriculture and turfgrass, that helps American students intern abroad and brings international students to the United States for internships. Amy then learned that OSU turfgrass specialist (and native Brit) Pam Sherratt had contacts at Te All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC). Sherratt connected Amy with their head groundskeeper, and after submitting her resume and references, and completing a FaceTime interview, she was offered a position on the seasonal grounds staff. Te paperwork to get the proper work visa took nearly eight months to complete but, according to Amy, the long process was “well worth it!”
Amy Wilber gives the “front lawn” of Te All England Lawn Tennis Club “Championship Court” treatment with the Infinicut mower.
During the actual Wimbledon tournament, her job was to place the lens caps on the net cameras and remove chairs from the court if the cover was pulled on Centre Court.
She was fortunate that the management at AELTC was committed to the internship and made sure she had a well- rounded experience in her three months at the facility. She had the opportunity to try almost all the tasks from weed removal, to mowing Championship courts and croquet lawns with electric Infinicut mowers, and practice courts with triplex mowers. She also edged courts and lawns with a motorized edger and vacuumed clippings, hand-seeded thin areas before Te Championships, and used the Koro to remove the dead plant material on Centre Court after it was steam-sterilized.
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When she wasn’t busy at the AELTC, Amy took advantage of the culture in England, visiting museums such as the Victoria and Albert, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Tate Modern, and the Museum of London. She was able to visit some local pubs with her friends and fellow interns. She also was able to watch quite a bit of cricket (and learned to play it one evening in a park), rugby, and football (soccer) and discovered that she really enjoyed watching rugby— especially sevens. She said, “It was really fun to follow the World Cup while in England (football’s coming home!) and I even arranged a World Cup sweepstakes with my coworkers.” She also enjoyed just exploring the area and seeing people utilizing open park space differently than in the United States.
TPI Turf News November/December 2018
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