HOW WE DO IT: Allentuck Landscaping Contributes to Its Community

The desire to share our success by giving back to the community we serve has always been an important part of the culture at Allentuck Landscaping Co.
 
For about 15 years, Allentuck Landscaping has set aside a day of service in October called “Company Day,” which benefits a local nonprofit organization. Company Day involves a major volunteer project, such as planting gardens at a hospice or cleaning up gardens and planting trees and shrubs at a school. The day is augmented with breakfast, a picnic lunch, a company soccer game and a family evening celebration. 
 
These shared activities have enabled us to develop solid relationships with each other while helping those in our Montgomery County, Md., community.
 
This year though, to commemorate Allentuck Landscaping’s 20th anniversary, we have taken on a truly awesome project with Giving Tree 2007 – Doing 20 Good Things for our Community. 
   
Initially we decided on several types of projects of interest. Because we have worked with many nonprofit organizations over the years, we had some insight as to which organizations we would like to focus on. We also received suggestions from the Corporate Volunteer Council of Montgomery County with which we have been involved for many years.
    
Although we wanted to do some landscaping, we wanted to experience volunteerism in other ways, too. We outlined projects that we definitely wanted to do and other potential ideas that we would consider. We budgeted for each project as well as allowed reasonable time for completion. After all, we still had to make sure the business was profitable and that our customers were well serviced. 
    
While we don’t convene a formal committee to organize volunteer projects, we did make sure the projects are understood and of interest to everyone within the company. Inclusion and participation in a volunteer project is open to all of our crews, and all project details are explained in English and in Spanish.
    
Volunteer projects take place during business hours, so employees are paid for their time. We consider these costs an investment in our company and in our staff. Employee morale improves with every project we complete. Not only do we get to do some new things, but we also get to see the smiles on the faces of those we help.
    
To date, our 31 employees have volunteered for 16 nonprofit organizations in our community. Some examples of projects have included landscape mowing, cleanups and plantings, donations of new books to school libraries, soup donations to elderly residents displaced by flooding, donations of bingo prizes to a nursing home and a major food collection.
 
Even though it presented a challenge to organize, the food collection has been the most rewarding project because we invited our maintenance customers to partner with us. Commercial customers were given flyers to hand out and boxes to fill. We also delivered packets containing a letter of explanation, a bag of microwave popcorn and plastic collection bags to 71 residential clients. A week later, crews picked up an amazing amount of food. Employees also generously donated a great variety of food.
 
It is very important to communicate with our employees, as well as with our customers, to make this project, and any other volunteer project we undertake, such a big success. The enthusiasm among both staff and customers has been tremendous and has been great for our company image, as well as for our morale.
 
Although Allentuck Landscaping does not actively seek out recognition for its volunteer program, recently we were honored with the small business 2007 Corporate Community Service Award from the Corporate Volunteer Council of Montgomery County. 
 
As we complete our year of giving, we are grateful to our staff for willingly making these projects a success and for the support our company receives from the community in which we live and work. We have learned much about the needs of our neighbors and are fortunate to be in a position to help make a difference.     

Bruce Allentuck is President of Allentuck Landscaping Co. in Clarksburg, Md., and can be reached at brucea@allentucklandscaping.com or 303/515-1900.