July 15, 2013
Denis Flanagan CLD
LO Manager of Membership and Public Relations

Denis FlanaganAs part of our ongoing program to support Landscape Ontario member companies, we have initiated a day for each Chapter with staff members going out to meet with members on their job sites.

To kick off the campaign, Helen Hassard, membership and chapter coordinator, and I spent a day with a number of Durham Chapter members. We toured in a Green for Life-signed vehicle, stocked with bottled water to distribute to work crews.

As part of our strategic plan, we began the tour with a visit to Vandermeer Nursery in Ajax. We dropped off brochures promoting the benefits of joining LO. Jane Kersten and Pradeep Suriar were delighted to be part of the membership campaign and proudly displayed the brochures front and centre on their contractors’ desk.  

We received the same warm reception at Arnts Loam Supply in Pickering, where they placed the brochures under their newly installed LO member sign. Thanks to our associate member, we hope to see a spike in summer membership applications.

Back on tour, we visited several job sites, including a unique installation on the shores of Frenchman’s Bay. This included some customized fencing and gazebo details and dredging work that required specialized permits. The complicated installation was being well managed by Ben Gray from Gray’s Landscaping and Snow Removal in Pickering. We encouraged Ben to enter this project, when the site is completed, in the Awards of Excellence program.

We also made stops at ongoing projects by B.K. Baun Landscape of Ajax, Earth Art Landscapes of Sunderland, Blue Oak Landscaping of Stouffville, and Lakeridge Contracting of Whitby.

The projects were varied and of top quality. It’s just what you would expect from our professional members.

Speaking of public relations, everyone wants to get in on the social media scene, so to get LO mentioned on Twitter, we took our little mascot Grout the Gnome on tour with us. He certainly became an online celeb!

The good news story continues with visits to members by your LO team Jane, Kathleen, Helen and Grout. We followed this up with stops in Toronto and London. Visits are planned to Upper Canada Chapter on July 16, Waterloo on July 31, Windsor on Aug. 7, Ottawa on Aug. 20, and Georgian Lakelands on Aug. 29.
Denis Flanagan can be reached at dflanagan@landscapeontario.com or at 905-875-1805, ext. 2303.