Day On The Hill: March 1997, PLCAA Remembers U.S. Veterans

This year’s event was special because more than 100 lawn care professionals gathered at Arlington National Cemetery on Feb. 2 to apply lime and seed to the grounds.

"Renewal and Remembrance" brought together 11 teams from companies in several states, numerous trucks and spreaders, plus donated materials. Sponsors Georgia Marble Co., LESCO Inc., Stihl Inc., Tessenderlo Kerly, The Andersons and Burlingham Seeds provided materials to enable the group to exceed its goal of rejuvenating 120 acres.

Phil Fogarty, president of Crowley’s Lawn Service, Cleveland, Ohio, coordinated the event with PLCAA and its Allied Regional Association Committee. Below are excerpts from his dedication address to Renewal and Remembrance:
"I am extremely proud to be a member of this group and I am especially proud of those members here today prepared to give of themselves, their time and their expertise. This shows your commitment to our industry, our environment and our country.

"Renewal and Remembrance - to make new and strong the recollection of who we are and to who we are grateful. Renewal and Remembrance - a chance for us to do with our actions what is impossible to put into words ... to say thank you to the veterans of every war and armed conflict that has befallen this great nation, especially to the 250,000 men and women who lie here under the shadow of the Capitol, entombed in our nation’s love.

"It is in these immortal patriots then than we exalt today by applying the tools and techniques of our trade. By liming and seeding today, we promote the life-giving green expanse before us - the oxygen-creating, water-cleansing lawn that covers these rolling hills.

"In 1872, Senator John Ingles paid tribute to the crop we grow by these words, ‘Next in importance to the divine profusion of water, light and air, those three great physical facts which render existence possible, may be reckoned the universal beneficence of grass. Lying in the sunshine among the buttercups and dandelions of May ... our earliest recollections are of grass ... (it) heals over the scars which our descent into the bosom of the earth has made, and the carpet of the infant becomes the blanket of the dead.

‘For grass is the forgiveness of nature, her constant benediction. Fields trampled with battle, saturated with blood, grow green again with grass and carnage is forgotten. Streets abandoned by traffic become grass grown like rural lanes and are obliterated. Forests decay, harvests perish, flowers vanish, but grass is immortal.'"

Fogarty continued, "How appropriate then that we help grow better this safe carpet, this immortal blanket, and in doing so on this February morning, pay homage to those who defended our liberty. We work here today to add to the serenity of these grounds -their grounds - and simultaneously renew a higher sense of what this nation truly stands for.

"It is each and every day that we remember these peacekeepers of the world, the men and women who gave us the privileges, the principles and the freedoms of the greatest nation on the face of this earth. We remember today and we will never forget."

After six hours of work, the group had limed more than 120 acres of turf and overseeded seven more acres around such high-profile areas as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Lee Mansion, the Kennedy grave sites and Memorial Gate. Jack Metzler, superintendent, and Eric Dihle, horticulturist, helped coordinate the event and provided backup support and vehicles.