Toronto, Ontario, Feb. 4 / -- Since its inception in 2003 the children at the Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) orphanage in the Dominican Republic have been playing soccer on a rocky dirt field. Nutri-Lawn, a Canadian-based lawn care company, teamed up with Friends of the Orphans (FOTO) and sent eleven volunteers to the town of San Pedro de Macoris for seven days to participate in the construction of a competition size soccer field for the 160 children residing at the orphanage.
The trip was organized by the re:nourish program established by Nutri-Lawn in 2008 with the objective of contributing to projects that are environmentally sustainable and encourage community health.
“An important part of our re:nourish program is to reach out to communities beyond where we currently operate and live,” said Ryan Vincent, president of Nutri-Lawn. “In the orphanage team building occurs in the classroom and also on the playing field. Seeing the excitement and wonder in the eyes of the 160 children when they were released from school and were able to run and play on the field for the first time, is a moment I will not soon forget.”
As leaders in ecologically friendly lawn care, the creation of the re:nourish program was the natural realization of the company’s core purpose: “We nourish lawns and lives.” Nutri-Lawn believes that nurturing communities – both near and far – is manifested though giving communities back their greenery.
“As we were working on the field we also had a crew working on an irrigation system for the community garden that produces all the vegetables for the orphanage,” said Jordan Lavin, the Director of Operations for Nutri-Lawn. “There is an onsite preexisting well that was used to fill buckets by hand, and then the water was poured onto the plants. With the new fully automated system that draws its water from the local well, we are saving a huge expense of energy that can now be refocused.”
The process of rebuilding the soil structure of the playing surface was the most intensive aspect of the field’s construction. Construction equipment was borrowed from a local golf course to remove rocks from the open field. An irrigation system was installed and instruction provided to the onsite staff for the maintenance of the field for years to come. The children of the orphanage also received donated soccer jerseys, cleats and shin pads, as well as goal posts for the field. “The kids should now have everything they need to go out and have a good time,” Vincent said. “At Nutri-Lawn we are committed to creating healthy lawns that are also ecologically friendly, so we felt that the children at NPH deserve to play on a great field.”
Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (which means for "Our Little Brothers and Sisters," in Spanish) started with seven children in January of 2003 and has been growing ever since. What began as one house has grown into a much larger residence where 159 children live in 15 homes and attend school in nearby classrooms. The organization hopes to house 500 children in the next five years.
For more information on Nutri-Lawn’s commitment to community partnerships please visits http://re-nourish.blogspot.com.
About Philanthropy at Nutri-Lawn.
Nutri-Lawn is proud to support the charitable causes that are important to customers and their associates in the global community. Through its philanthropic programs and partnerships, Nutri-Lawn supports environmental responsibility and community involvement. For twenty years Nutri-Lawn has been the leader of ecologically responsible lawn care, and their core purpose is to nourish lawns and lives. They are committed to community health through the re:nourish program. To learn more, visit www.nutrilawn.com.
For more information please contact:
Jordan Lavin
jlavin@nutrilawn.com
416 620 7100
