Project EverGreen, partners “green up” Raleigh’s Sanderford Road Park

Green spaces like Raleigh’s Sanderford Road Park are critical in offsetting the ‘heat island’ effect and providing the surrounding area with cooler, cleaner air. They also offer a multifaceted array of benefits that make neighborhoods more livable, healthier and enjoyable for residents.

Delivering those “green” benefits was the goal of the national nonprofit Project EverGreen and its partners with the renovation of Sanderford Road Park. The renovation took place March 18-20, 2024, with more than 40 volunteers lending their time and talent to update and improve the park’s green spaces and to make it an area destination.

Joining Project EverGreen in the effort were the City of Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department, Ruppert Landscape, Professional Grounds Management Society, students from North Carolina State and local corporate and community volunteers.

“A single group or individual cannot make these park transformations a reality. Project EverGreen builds coalitions of businesses and individuals to bring needed change to public green spaces,” says Cindy Code, executive director of Project EverGreen. “Cities with healthy and well-maintained play areas and recreation spaces improves the social fabric of a community by connecting people to green spaces that are beneficial to the environment and physical and mental well-being.”

Through it GreenCare for Communities initiative Project EverGreen works with communities to renovate, maintain and create more accessible parks, athletic fields and public green spaces. Since 2008, Project EverGreen has completed more than 100 park, athletic field and green space renovation projects, restoring more than 200 million square feet of healthy turf and plants across the country.

The Sanderford Road Park project included:

• Prepping landscape beds – digging new beds, adding top dressing of 50/50 compost-top soil mix – in front of the community center and in island located on the entry pathway to the park.
• Excavating soil for new landscape beds around the baseball field.
• Installing new native meadows for perennial and annual plantings to attract pollinators.
• Plant more than 1,000 perennial and annual flowers, ferns, and grasses in key areas of the park.
• Limb up low hanging tree branches for safety and improved sightlines.

Stephen Bentley, director, City of Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department, says the city was eager to partner on the project.

“Raleigh Parks was excited to partner with Project EverGreen on the landscape improvements at Sanderford Road Park. Improvements like this make the park more welcoming, pollinator friendly and continue to show that our green spaces are essential to the environmental, and the physical and mental health of our community,” Bentley says. “We are thankful for all our volunteers this week and the leadership and generosity of the Project EverGreen team.”

Giving back the gift of healthy green spaces to communities is also meaningful to volunteer partners, according to Drew Dummann, region manager for Ruppert’s North Carolina region.

“When we look for community service projects, we are looking for a project where we can utilize our landscaping skills and company resources to better our community and our environment,” Dummann says. “One of our company’s values is giving back to our community, so partnering with Project EverGreen to enhance the appeal of this community park really resonated with us.”