395 W Lindsey St.

| Norman, OK 73019 | (405) 325-2721

MEMO
Date: Mar. 1, 2022
To: Students of the University of Oklahoma
From: McKenna Cash
Director of Public Relations
mcash15@ou.edu

Through our research we found three different organizations that support our campaign, the Study
Gardens at the University of Oklahoma. The first organization is the Mental Health Commission of
Canada. The second organizations are Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick and le Centre de formation
médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick. The final organization is The New York Botanical Garden.
The Mental Health Commission of Canada has developed multiple programs to help promote mental
health wellness within the work environment. Promoting mental health wellness across the campus is our
campaign’s main goal. Just like this backgrounder suggests, we want the university community to
recognize that health and safety extend beyond physical health when it comes to our performance at
school and work.
The Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick and le Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick
backgrounder is an overview of how the students on the two medical campuses of New Brunswick
propose mental health should be handled throughout their province. Throughout the backgrounder there
are many ideas on how to better support the population in mental wellbeing, but what we found
specifically helpful is their section on services they provide for students. This gives us ideas for what
resources we should include in our campaign to better the mental health of OU.
The New York Botanical Garden backgrounder goes through the landscape design of the gardens and
what layouts have succeeded. This backgrounder will not only help us brainstorm different ideas for the
layout of our garden, but it will also give us unique ideas for what to include. By including different
textures, dimensions, and elevations throughout the gardens we are hoping to make them more visually
pleasing rather than just through color.
The layout of the Mental Health Commission of Canada is very simple and straight to the point. It appears
to be very formal and almost sterile. They have used their logo as their letterhead on each page. They also
included their mission, typed in a blue from their logo, in the footer. This helps to keep their branding
cohesive throughout. The only other color used is the color of a hyperlink, but it coincidentally ties into
the organization’s logo. They have done a great job of keeping paragraphs short for easy reading.
The Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick and le Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick
backgrounder is very busy and hard to follow. It took multiple reviews before the layout became apparent.
Having a contents at the beginning is helpful. They also did a great job keeping a similar theme
throughout using color. We were wondering if the blue used throughout was their university’s colors, but
it is not. It would have been more consistent branding had they used their school colors. The blue might
have been used since it would be significantly easier to read on white paper, but also blue is associated
with being a business form color. The biggest critic is just to make the paragraphs smaller and dispersed
to create easier flow throughout the document.
The New York Botanical Garden’s backgrounder is the most simplistic out of the three we researched.
There is no color used anywhere on this document besides the logo of the foundation that sponsors the
featured artist’s home and studio back in England. This is the only backgrounder that also formatted it the
closest to how we learned in class. They have laid out their backgrounder in a very easy to navigate and
read format. Our one critic would be to somehow better incorporate their branding throughout the design
and utilize color somewhere.
As with any large garden community, maintenance is a big undertaking, so we have created a clean-up
initiative to happen every other weekend. Similar to the Big Event but a few steps less than, the OU
community will come together to spruce and clean the gardens. Any small projects that need to be
accomplished will be finished during this event as well as a litter pick up. The gardens main goal is to
benefit the overall well-being of the university’s community, so by incorporating simple tasks such as
garbage pick-ups and replanting events, the gardens will provide a community within the community. We
would also be recruiting the help of local landscape architects and lawn care businesses to come out and
help us.
Backgrounders relating to gardening techniques, layouts, and supplies are going to significantly benefit
the research for our Study Garden campaign. Mental health backgrounders are also going to improve our
research on how to incorporate healthy wellness techniques across the campus. The study gardens are
wanting to help improve our mental wellness but in order to do so we have to work together to maintain
the cleanliness and serenity of the garden environment.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns.

Thank you very much.

McKenna G. Cash