PLANET Day of Service — get crackin', it's almost here

Thinking about participating in PLANET Day of Service April 22 but haven't made up your mind yet?

My late father, bless his heart, had a saying when he saw me dithering over whether I should do something or not. "Poop or get off the pot," he would say. Fathers tend to say those kinds of things, right?

OK, so get crackin'. Pull the trigger if you've been debating whether to select a project, mobilize your team and be counted among the Day of Service volunteers. You still have time to get Day of Service shirts for your workers. The deadline is April 13. Popular projects include grounds of schools, parks, playgrounds, senior centers, shelters, etc.

“The concept behind the PLANET Day of Service is to bring volunteers together to fill needs in each community by creating and caring for green spaces,” says PLANET President David Snodgrass, Landscape Industry Certified Manager. “Our members know how important it is for people to have parks to enjoy and gardens where children can learn about the environment.”

In the past two years of the event, PLANET members completed more than 480 projects in 43 states and in Canada, with nearly 5,000 volunteers donating more than $1,000,000 in time, material, and services.

There’s a lot of great information on the PLANET Day of Service website. Start there.

The Lead Sponsors for this year’s event are Agrium Advanced Technologies, American Profit Recovery, JOHN DEERE, PBI/Gordon Corporation, and Shindaiwa.

Other sponsors include Corona — Season after Season, Duke’s Landscape Management, Inc.; Ewing; HighGrove Partners; Hoedown Gardening & Landscaping, Inc.; Kichler Lighting; Lebanon Turf; Nufarm Turf & Ornamental; Project Evergreen; Puryear Farms; Sebert Landscaping; Snapper Pro; STIHL Inc.; Terracare Associates; The Greenwood Group, LLC and Turf Appeal Inc.

Here are some images taken of the Mirrorscapes LLC team in Ohio by the Landscape Management magazine staff during its 2010 Day of Service project. — Ron Hall