The first load of black dirt arrived shortly after 7 a.m. At that time of morning, residents on Stow Street are just wiping the sleep from their eyes and grabbing for that first cup of morning coffee. Not Paul and Marie Tarantino. They were waiting bright-eyed on their lawn Saturday as volunteers from Project Evergreen pulled up with heavy equipment.
The Tarantinos are the first military family in Wisconsin participating in Project Evergreen’s initiative known as Greencare for Troops. The program provides free lawn care to U.S. military families at home while their loved ones serve in the Armed Forces.
In Paul’s case, he arrived home last Tuesday from a year-long deployment in Iraq, just in time to roll up his sleeves and join the dozen workers hauling stone and landscape bark, buckets of mulch and flats of perennials. “I’m amazed at what they are doing here today, ” Paul said.
The Army National Guard sergeant served with the 732nd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion Unit out of Tomah. While in Iraq, the unit’s mission was transportation and supply, and aiding in the drawing down of troops.
“We were transferring equipment to Afghanistan - basically helping with the reduction of our troops in Iraq,” he said.
A May 2009 deployment date came too soon to allow Paul and Marie much time to make repairs to their damaged yard. The Tarantinos were among the thousands of Fond du Lac County residents made victims by major flooding that occurred in June 2008.
“Chaos,” Marie said, describing what life was like during those months Paul was overseas. “Taking care of the bills, the kids (the couple have four in a blended family), the yard, shoveling snow, working, I felt like I was riding the Tea Cup at Coney Island,” she said.
She discovered Project Evergreen while Googling last summer, but at that time, GreenCare was non-existent in Wisconsin. Just eight weeks before Paul was set to return to the United States, Marie got a call.
Landscape maintenance professionals in the state came on board for the cause. Gary Weyers of Weyers Equipment in Kaukauna organized the state’s pilot project in Fond du Lac through the Wisconsin Landscape Contractors Association and the Fox City Contractors Association.
“I sent them photos of our house and the yard. They took over from there and did it all,” Marie said. “I wasn’t even expecting half of this.”
The project involved hauling in and laying down black dirt, re-seeding lawn, planting flowers beds and shrubbery, weeding and building a backyard fire ring paved with a circular, brick patio. All the work and equipment was donated by Fox City Contractors members.
“Everything went smoothly, and we had plenty of help,” Weyers said.
The list of participants included Ben Streeter Earth Werks, Stuart’s Landscaping, Buechel Stone, Rademann Stone and Landscaping - all of Fond du Lac, John Behm’s Happy Lawns of Berlin and Garden Partners landscaping of Appleton. A group of volunteers from Holy Family Catholic Parish helped plant flowers. Mike Buechel, one of the owners of Buechel Stone, personally came out to lend support to Paul, who is employed with the company as a blaster.
“For me, a guy who gives a year of his life to this country … I’m glad I can help - that’s what it comes down to,” he said.
“We’re very happy to lend this family a hand,” said Rod Runde of Garden Partners. He helped oversee the project. Based in New Prague, Minn., Project EverGreen is a national non-profit organization representing green industry service providers, associations, suppliers, distributors and individuals.
The link between the families and the volunteers is done at the Project EverGreen headquarters, said Joy Westenberg, manager of GreenCare for Troops.
“Lawn and landscape maintenance becomes a definite hardship when a military family’s primary breadwinner is on active duty away from home,” Westenberg said. “The program seeks to ease this burden by helping affected families.”