Ohio man’s project to keep Arlington green blossoms

EUCLID, Ohio (AP) — Phil Fogarty knows about growing big things from seed. That’s his business.

But even Fogarty, owner of the Weed Man lawn-care company in Euclid, marvels at how his idea for a service day at Arlington National Cemetery has blossomed over 13 years into an annual event involving 400 landscape and lawn-care workers from 27 states.

“It answers some of the intense need I’ve found in people to say thanks,” he said in a recent interview.

The event, called “Renewal & Remembrance,” started in 1996, when Fogarty learned about a tree-care association volunteering for a day at Arlington.

“Arlington has more grass than trees,” he said. “I met with the superintendent there, went on a tour and asked if we could do the lawns on an annual basis. He said, ‘Here’s a little project, let’s see how you guys do with it.’ The goal of that first year was to earn another year.”

He scheduled the work to follow the land-care industry’s annual legislative meetings in Washington, and sent word of his plan to landscapers who’d be attending.

Three dozen showed up to spread lime over 40 acres of Arlington in the initial outing. The next year, a bigger group limed 100 acres, and sodded and aerated. The third year, they did 150 acres and brought their own arborists.

“It’s gotten bigger and bigger each year,” said Jack Metzler, superintendent of the cemetery. “It really gives us a tremendous shot in the arm in the landscape area to improve the quality of what visitors and family members see. They do that little bit more that we can’t do.”

Last year, with the added help of 80 spouses and children, the volunteers made improvements worth more than $300,000 — spreading lime over 250 acres of turf, repairing and installing irrigation systems, finishing more than 800 landscape installations and working to protect 20 historic trees. Metzler welcomed the group with a color guard, and his staff is already at work to plan this year’s Renewal & Remembrance, on July 13.

“It’s unbelievable to watch the whole thing happen,” Fogarty said, noting that volunteers arrive with trucks and equipment specially cleaned for the occasion. “They show up like they’re on line for inspection by the president. It’s such an honor to be able to work there.”

None of it would happen without Fogarty, said Den Gardner, executive director of Operation EverGreen, the industry’s nonprofit public service group.

“He has this way of being able to get people to commit time, talent and materials,” he said in a call from his office in Minnesota. “I can say unequivocally that Phil Fogarty, from a volunteer standpoint, is the No. 1 person in the green industry. I’ve never met a guy who has been more visionary and had more ideas and more passion. When he calls and asks me to help, I don’t have to think twice.”

Wanting to do “something for the folks who aren’t in Arlington,” Fogarty worked with Gardner four years ago to start GreenCare for Troops, which offers free lawn and landscape service to military families with a breadwinner serving overseas. The nationwide program has 2,000 volunteers helping 7,400 families.

“We should be cleaning their carpets, washing their windows, taking care of their asphalt,” said Fogarty, 48, who lives in Munson Township with his wife, Sally, and their four sons. “They shouldn’t be living worse than we do. My dream is that our nation have some network of services for these people.

“It’s been a really fun, rewarding thing to do,” he added. “None of us has done any of it for recognition. We do it in recognition of what those folks do for us. Everything about our work at Arlington and for families we’ve kind of wanted to do as quietly as they work for us.”

He is talking about it now, however, because GreenCare for Troops has launched “Buck It Up for Military Families,” a fundraiser to expand service and add a scholarship fund, and because the landscape industry has designated Earth Day, April 22, as a day of service for parks — much like Renewal & Remembrance in Arlington.

“Green spaces enhance the quality of life,” Fogarty said. “There’s something deep in all of us that we love to be around green things. They’ve proven we heal faster if we have a view of a green space looking out of a hospital room. Green heals us. When you go into a cemetery, something calming happens — you go there to heal a little bit.”