PLANET Day of Service 2010 Recap

Good morning!

The Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) introduced a great program in 2009 celebrating Earth Day called PLANET Day of Service. Volunteerism and service to our community is an important part of why Quercus is successful and a huge part of our philosophy.

This year PLANET Day of Service completed over 200 projects with 3,000 volunteers throughout the US. Three of those projects were in Minnesota with Landscape Renovations completing a project at Central Park in Woodbury, we planted shrubs, trimmed trees and cleaned beds at the Scott County Historical Museum and Wild Ways to Garden cleaned up the shoreline of Lake John in Annandale, MN.

Our project went great this year. Our employees volunteered their time and we made a big difference in the gardens around the Stans House at the Scott County Historical Museum. Here is a video with some photos from our day. You can also see more photos on our Flickr page.

I hope everyone had a great Earth Day and keep it in mind every day of the year. I will soon be posting about what Quercus does on an ongoing basis for a better world.

Have a wonderful day!

Brad

Earth Day & PLANET Day of Service

Good morning!

The Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) began a wonderful program last year called PLANET Day of Service. Landcare companies from all over the country perform service projects in their local communities on Earth Day.

Last year we planted a bed around a new park sign at Tahpah Neighborhood Park in Shakopee and now maintain the area. Here is a little video of what we did.

This year we are installing plant material and cleaning up the gardens around the Historic Stans House at the Scott County Historical Society here in Shakopee. We are very excited to work with Kathy Klehr, the Director, and help make the world a better place for Earth Day.

I’ll post pictures on here and you can follow us on Twitter as @quercusinc or follow all the PLANET Day of Service projects at #2010PDOS on Twitter.

Have a wonderful day!

Brad

Congrats to MNLA for their PLANET Awards!

Good morning all!

Last Friday I attended PLANET’s Awards Banquet in Louisville, Kentucky where they present their Association Awards, Safety Awards and Environmental Improvement Awards.

The Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association received TWO awards that night. I am very proud of the work MNLA does for our industry. We received on for Association Partner of the Year for creating the website landlovers.org and another for Association Executive of the Year for MNLA’s involvement in PLANET’S Day of Service.

Great job to Bob Fitch and the MNLA staff along with all the organizations involved with MNLA!

Have a wonderful day!

Brad

Professional Landcare Network: Green Industry Conference

Good morning all! I am excited to be heading to Louisville, Kentucky tomorrow

Louisville Arboretum in 2008

for the Professional Landcare Network’s (PLANET) Green Industry Conference.

This will be my 6th (maybe 7th) time I’ve attended GIC and look forward to networking with my friends from across the country and learning more about the latest trends in the landscape industry.

I will be checking email and voicemail while out of town but if you need immediate assistance please call Manuel at 952.367.6315.

Have a wonderful day!

Brad

Renewal and Remembrance

This week the landscape industry’s national association – the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) – completed an amazing project at Arlington National Cemetary. A good friend of mine posted this today:

“Around late morning I stopped to check on “Team Allentuck” to see if they needed anything. As I got out of my car, I saw that a ceremony was taking place in the adjacent Section 61, which is where soldier from Iraq and Afghanistan are laid to rest. I felt frozen, watching the flag being solemnly folded and handed to the soldier’s family. It was then that I noticed that the sound of shovels behind me had quieted. I turned and saw every member of our team had stop working to respectfully take in the scene. As the family left, I fully realized that they could not appreciate the work we were doing today, but I hoped that when they returned some time later to visit their hero, the work were doing would help to bring them peace. This is what Renewal and Remembrance is all about.”

-Bruce Allentuck, Allentuck Landscaping

Here is a piece from the NBC Nightly News about their work.

Have a wonderful day!

Brad