Day 1 2010

We arrived last night...with the Ontario crew arriving in around 9pm into La Romana with a short trip to our hotel and the Ottawa/Vancouver crew arriving in around midnight after a 2 hour bus ride form Punta Cana.

We arrived at the orphanage bright and early this morning with plenty of energy and anticipation of what lay ahead. For those us that were here last year it was the excitement of seeing the development over the last year and for the first timers it was the thrill of being able to put plans into action.

This year the theme is agriculture so we are utilising some of our irrigation equipment that we left behind last year as well as what we sent via container this year.

We have also been asked to expand the soccer field project we completed last year.

We are also going to complete an offsite, outreach project that will benefit some of the local 'bateys' (migrant sugercane worker villages - usually Haitian).

Here is my intro to the work we will complete at the outreach program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXs2WrZ9yUw

Here is Greg’s recap of day 1 work on the soccer field.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsJJ0-q1lzA

Ryan and Terry give us an update on the irrigation work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76zd-hUmZS4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKXt1iW1aq8

2010 Dominican Trip begins Jan 4th - Follow Us Here!

As part of our commitment to our re:nourish philanthropic program and our core purpose, we nourish lawns and lives, a team of franchisees and staff will be traveling to the Dominican Republic in early January to spend a week at the Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos or "Our Little Brothers and Sisters," orphanage for approximately 160 children in San Pedro de Macoris.

Last year we completed a project that saw the team build a full size soccer field including irrigation and new sod on what was a rocky dirt field. We also irrigated an existing vegetable garden.

This year's theme is agriculture so we will be working with local staff to expand and further irrigate the vegetable garden, build animal enclosures as well as conduct some maintenance work on our soccer field.

If you would like to donate to our efforts please click the donate button below.

Follow us here for regular updated beginning Jan 4th.

For more information on our renourish program visit our website.

Nutri-Lawn Newfoundland Launches Annual re:nourish Food Drive

On October 8/09, Nutri-Lawn will be holding its 2nd annual FOOD DRIVE to help refill the shelves of the Salvation Army Food Bank during this busy period.



For more information or to donate contact Boyd Loveless @ 709.728.8830 or stjohns@nutrilawn.com.

Nutri-Lawn Kelowna's re:nourish program collects over 2000lbs for local food bank

Local company ensures Kelowna food bank’s shelves filled for the next week



Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 | 11:00 am
food bank's shelves kept full for a week thanks to a local business

The food bank's shelves were kept full for a week thanks to a local business. (Photo Kathy Michaels)

By Kathy Michaels

Usually they make sure local lawns are kept healthy, but recently the staff at Nutri-lawn turned their attention to families in need.

Over the month of September, Nutri-lawn staff took it upon themselves to collect food items from their customers as they visited their houses to do fall fertilizer treatments — and when all was said and done the local foodbank found itself 2,400 lbs of food richer.

“When we finished loading up our trucks today we had two full loads of food,” said Kevin MacKenzie, sales and customer experience manager Nutri-Lawn Okanagan.

Upon reaching the food bank, he learned the two truck loads would translate into 250 hampers or one and a half to two weeks worth of food supplies.

As a franchise, Nutri-lawn has a give back program in its communities and each is encouraged to do food drives. It was something that was going to fall to the wayside this year, but when news of the fires and the food bank’s struggles to keep their shelves filled pierced their consciousness, they made the decision to move forward.

They contacted their customers, and the project took on a life of its own.

“About 50 per cent, or 600 to 700 families, gave us food,” said MacKenzie. “Each guy was bringing in 70 to 100 lbs of food a day, and by the end we had 51 banana boxes full.”

Now that MacKenzie has realized that the effort was so easy, he’s hoping other businesses will take the charge and help fill the food bank’s shelves.

“We really weren’t sure what to expect but everyone who did it was surprised by how easy it was to give back to the community,” he said.

In addition to this effort, the company also sends a team abroad every year to do work that may otherwise be ignored. Last year a team went to the Dominican Republic and built a soccer field for a community that would have gone without.

And, MacKenzie said, the reward of community involvement both at home and away is irreplaceable.

Nutri-Lawn 2009 Food Drive Now On!

With our 2009 re;nourish Food Drive underway I thought I would share some of the fact from our 2008 efforts.

The Nutri-Lawn / re:nourish food drive program began in Kitchener, Ontario on 2007 when franchise owners Gary & Nancy Mulhall felt the calling to assist their local community food bank by collecting non-perishable food items. They contacted each customer the day before they were due to visit their property asking them to leave any item they wish to donate on their front door and the Nutri-Lawn representative would collect and deliver the items to the food bank.

Positive feedback from customers, staff and the food bank themselves in the Kitchener/Waterloo are soon lead to other franchise owners wanting to do their part in this very worth while cause.

2008 saw eight locations participate with over 12,000 items or 10,000 lbs collected and over $1200 in donations from customers.

With the 2009 efforts now underway we hope to have another great year. If you are contacted by your local Nutri-Lawn please consider giving some non-perishable food to this very worthy cause.

If you would like to donate and haven't been contacted please contact your local team by clicking here>

NPH Dominican Republic Summer Newsletter 2009:

Thanks to NPH DR home correspondent Megan Palacios' for her Summer Newsletter update.

Summer 2009 Newsletter

If you have trouble downloading News>Download>Look for June 22. 2009 posting.

Our soccer field lives on!

Well after nearly six months to establish itself our soccer field project is looking great!

Jordan had Damon from the Roco Ki golf course do an inspection last week and as a result has offered to do some weed control, fertilizing and top dressing of the entire field! Thank you very much Damon!

Damon had a plant pathologist from North Carolina with him during his visit and they took some soil samples and will do a nutrient analysis for Damon to work with.

Below are some pics from Damon's visit. It looks like when we return again early next year we will be doing some serious weed control around the perimeter of the field.