I started off my work in Extension in Arlington County in 2007. My agriculture Natural Resources job that I had inherited seemed to consist of mostly Master Gardener led environmental horticulture programs. As I developed the urban agriculture program I naturally turned to Virginia State University and soon came in contact with Andy Hankins. Andy, by turns both amused me and challenged me. His low key, slow paced ways seemed so out of place in our rapid, crowded, traffic filled area. In spite of what I suspect was not a fun thing for him to do, he came here several times- twice to do his shiitake mushroom workshop for us. At the end of the second time, he said to me, "I'm retiring you know, so I'm appointing you the shiitake expert in Northern Virginia", and sat me down and showed me who to talk to and where to get the tools. Me? Well if Andy said I could do it, then I probably could. He also included us in his CellUGro project bringing us one of his units to install on the pavement of a local school. This generosity was met with incredible enthusiasm from the school and we organized press releases and a huge school involvement. They use it to this day. I saw Andy at open houses at Randolph Farm a couple of these years. He always had a project going always something big that he wanted to tell me about, always something that he wanted to share. In short, Andy was the model of the Extension educator I wanted to be. I am still here partly because of his enthusiasm and encouragement and his absolute certainty that his work was of value and the we help people lead better lives. I will miss him.