LandCare revitalizes child welfare organization in Florida

After showing him around the Children's Harbor property, Tiffani Dhooge didn't expect Juan Carlos Gutierrez to come back.

Dhooge manages an eight-acre property that doesn't have the budget for significant campus renovations. But one day, Dhooge pulled up to work only to see what she describes as a landscaping team "mobilized like an army." Gutierrez, the branch manager of LandCare's Fort Lauderdaule branch, and his team had arrived with thousands of dollars in plant materials to donate and make the grounds look beautiful.

Children's Harbor is a nationally accredited child welfare organization, which provides safe shelter and support to teenagers in foster care. And Dhooge, the president and CEO, says it stood out to her that Gutierrez didn't do this charity for publicity. She had to look him up on LinkedIn just to find his information to thank him later.

"This guy wanted nothing. He just did what he felt he needed to do. He mobilized his entire team," Dhooge says. “This guy needs all the business in the world for this.”

Julie Khanna, a media marketing and publicist whose clients include Children's Harbor, helped the company reach out to Lawn & Landscape. She believes LandCare's act of kindness resonates with the folks living and working at Children's Harbor.

“The bigger picture here is the kids’ take away on this – that there’s community champion," Khanna says. "He honestly did this in the goodness of his own heart."

"The (staff) gets pointed fingers at them all the time," Dhooge adds. "Then this group shows us and says, 'We see you, we know you’re exhausted, we want you to have a beautiful place.' Gosh, (it's hard to sum up) what this did for the morale, to have people to show up on our campus and didn’t want anything from us."

Dhooge and Khanna still don't know why Gutierrez did it. "I honestly think he has a dog and he might walk by with this dog at a nearby dog park," Dhooge says, adding that the front entrance was in needed of an upgrade. "It didn't look like a home.”

Now, the front entrance is more of a welcome area with new plants decorating it. Every single family group home now have lines of plants out front.

“I don’t think people understand the morale lift," Dhooge says. "Every single team member mentioned, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s beautiful.' It gives you a different sense of pride.”