Surrounded by fresh orchids, hot food and even hotter jazz, a black-tie crowd of about 300 joined Manchester Bidwell Corp. President and CEO Bill Strickland for the long-awaited opening of the Andrew W. Mathieson Center for Horticulture and Agricultural Sciences.

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By Patricia Sheridan, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
It wasn’t just orchids that were blooming all around the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center Saturday night.

Irony found fertile ground, too. Laughing, Helen Mathieson told guests that her late husband, Drew, “hated gardening, he despised it.” That was just before the ribbon was cut and the curtain pulled back on the Drew Mathieson Center for Horticultural & Agricultural Technology, which will offer programs in plant science to prepare students for positions in related fields.

For the full Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article:
http://www.post-gazette.com/seen/20030609event0609fnp1.asp

By Jean Horne, for the Tribune-Review
Orchids, orchids everywhere … a forest of the hot-house gloriosos shimmered and gleamed on every surface at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, “a place where you would least expect to find them,” beamed founder/prez/CEO Bill Strickland. “We have come from riot troops in the ’60s (after Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination) to orchids in the same spot.” Saturday night, after a day-long downpour, the clouds parted and the sun shone on the house that Bill built in Hell’s belly on the North Side. Call him the Bill of rights … for the right cause, the right crowd and the right place in time to celebrate the dedication of MCG’s new Drew Mathieson Center for Horticultural & Agricultural Technology.

For the full Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/search/s_138768.html

Pittsburgh, PA - Saturday, June 7, 2003, 6:30pm, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center will celebrate the realization of a dream. Phalaenopsis orchids are blooming at its new 40,000 square foot production greenhouse. A spectacular black- tie Gala Celebration, “A Legacy of Inspiration” will mark the dedication of The Drew Mathieson Center for Horticultural and Agricultural Technology. The Center will offer enrichment and education in the plant sciences to South Western Pennsylvania residents, public school students and unemployed and under-employed adults. (more…)