Project EverGreen, members of the Sports Field Management Association, and the Volusia County Schools teamed up on January 21 at Palm Terrace Elementary School in Daytona Beach to give the school’s long dormant baseball field and grassy play area a $35,000 makeover.
The goal of the 100,000 square foot field renovation project was to leave the school and community with a safe, well-maintained, and accessible ballfield and recreation space they can call their own.
Project EverGreen works with under-resourced communities to renovate, maintain, and make more accessible healthy playing fields, as well as to improve the environmental health of public green spaces. The 100,000 square feet of grass at the Palm Terrace play field is responsible for sequestering nearly 60,000 pounds of carbon from the air annually which is equivalent to removing 7.5 cars fueled by gas from the road.
Previous projects include Phoenix (2019), West Palm Beach (2020) and Savannah (2021). Visit the Palm Terrace Elementary School project page.
2024 Board Members
In related news, Project EverGreen held its annual meeting recently and named individuals to its 2024 Board of Directors.
The new President is Scott Bills, CSFM. Bills is a nationally recognized Certified Sports Field Manager and president of NJ-based Sports Field Solutions, LLC. With more than 40 years’ experience, Bills has designed, constructed, and renovated hundreds of sports fields and athletic complexes in addition to numerous golf courses.
Bills expertly evaluates, consults, and manages natural and synthetic athletic field projects across the U.S. He also provides formal training to school grounds departments, parks maintenance departments and private sports organizations, helping them improve the safety, playability, and appearance of their fields. For more than 10 years, Bills has been teaching courses for the Rutgers University Department of Continuing Education related to sports field construction, maintenance, and park liability.
Beth Berry, Vice President at Advanced Turf Solutions, will serve as Vice President/President-Elect. Berry is a seasoned service industry veteran, pioneering the customer experience in the lawn care industry at ChemLawn and progressing to the Director of Customer Service at Scotts Lawn Service. A University of Indianapolis graduate, Berry also sits on the board of the National Association of Landscape Professionals, Women in Landscape Network, and Indiana Professional Lawn and Landscape Association.
Fred Haskett of TrueWinds Consulting returns as Secretary/Treasurer and Kevin Laycock of SiteOne Landscape Supply will serve as the Immediate Past President.
The Project EverGreen board and advisory council work to measurably increase and improve the amount of healthy green spaces through the GreenCare for Communities and GreenCare for Troops initiatives.
GreenCare for Troops marks its 18th year in 2024 and over its tenure has provided an estimated $15 million in donated lawn, landscape, and snow removal services and peace of mind to thousands of military families across the U.S. who are enduring a deployment.
Through its GreenCare for Communities projects, Project EverGreen and its partners have renovated community parks and public green spaces totaling more than 200 million square feet of green space.
2024 Board of Directors
- Andrew Bray – National Association of Landscape Professionals
- Cayla Chamberlin – Gilbert Family Foundation
- Tim Demerath – PBI-Gordon
- George Furrer – Valley Green Inc.
- Todd Mason – Sipcam Agro USA
- Russ Mitchell – Prime Source at Albaugh, LLC
- Blaine Pinkerton – Nufarm
- Linda Satter – AMGUARD Environmental Technologies
- Paula Sliefert – The Toro Company
- Sarah Spatola – Arborjet | Ecologel
- Shayne Wetherall – AMGUARD Environmental Technologies
- Alan White – Turf Systems
- Lee Withers – Kress
- Ashley Williams – TELUS Agriculture & Consumer Goods
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