MESSIAH'S Mark Graybill HEROES UNSUNG

WRITTEN BY ROSIE SCHIANO DESIGNED BY AMBER SWAISGOOD AND ALLYSON LYNDAKER

“Every day is not a typical day,” for a Messiah University groundskeeper, says Mark Graybill.

To say the least, Messiah University's campus is beautiful and it’s the devoted groundskeepers who make it stay that way.

Graybill is the current Grounds Manager at the university and has been an employee for 15 years. For 12 of those years, he worked in the grounds department by the athletic fields before being promoted to Grounds Manager three years ago.

Graybill oversees nine seasonal employees and seven full-time employees. Together, they manage over 470 acres of property, 300 of which are manicured.

The groundskeepers start the day by clocking in at 6:30 a.m. The first thing done upon arriving on campus is checking their section. Each full-time employee has a section on campus they need to maintain. This includes checking to make sure everything is safe and that no hazards have appeared overnight.

“While we are going through [their sections], it is trash clean up and making sure the general clean up of that section is done,” Graybill said. From there, depending on the season, the groundskeepers have various projects. If it's the growing season, they have mowing, trimming, and keeping up with the beds, making sure everything is weed free and that the edges on the sidewalk are good.

“We make sure wherever the potential student is, where they are gonna walk, is cleaned up, blown, make sure we don't miss anything,” Graybill said.

The groundskeepers also work on Messiah events. In preparation for these events, they put signs up for open houses, put on their backpack blowers and clean up areas on campus, and set up tents around campus for various events.

The Messiah’s groundskeepers aren't only in charge of keeping your campus beautiful, they are also in charge of keeping our campus and the students safe.

“We are essential personnel,” Graybill said. “If there is a flood, trees down, or snow, we are the first ones called in for the situation.”

If the campus is experiencing unexpected weather, Graybill and his team are the first ones to come in. When it snows, they make sure the walkways are salted. In addition to that, they blow or shovel the snow from the sidewalks to ensure safety for the students and staff.

“Our number one thing is safety,” Graybill said. “Our guys are very specific about making sure when a student is walking across, maybe with their head down in their phone, or the earbuds in, that we are extra sensitive to that so we are making it a safe campus.”

Being a groundskeeper isn’t an easy job to do, but there are some things Messiah students do that make their job a little easier and worth it.

“Our students are phenomenal,” Graybill said. “When I was over on the athletic fields there were so many ‘Thank -yous.’ You feel appreciated here by the student body. The thank-yous go further than what they know when they say it.

Graybill and the other groundskeepers work diligently, priding themselves in togetherness and teamwork. At the end of the day, Graybill’s love of the university shines through.

“I absolutely love my job. I love this university, I love the people we work with, I love the students, I love everything about it,” Graybill said.

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