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March 2007 - Posts
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Welcome to YEA! (Yard Enthusiasts of America). Wow, this is the culmination
of nearly three years of work as hundreds of volunteers across the country have
found out about Project EverGreen and are enthused about what we're trying
to accomplish for consumers getting information on well-maintained green spaces. Project EverGreen is proud to sponsor YEA! But before I say more...
I grew up on a farm near a small town just 30 miles west of Minneapolis back
in the late 1950s and 1960s. Talk about the best of both worlds in my world
of green. Small-town America, near the "big city," growing up on a farm. My dad
is totally responsible for my love of green spaces. Soon we will be
celebrating (and I mean celebrating) the sixth anniversary of his death. I think
about him a lot, but specifically just a few days ago. I spent a day last
week in Fort Myers, Florida at Hammond Stadium presenting the Minnesota Twins
with Project EverGreen's Stewardship Award for refurbishing 200-plus softball
and baseball fields.
What does that have to do with my dad? My dad didn't refurbish a baseball
field for me when I was a kid growing up on the farm. He BUILT me (and my twin
brother Dan) a baseball field in the cow pasture. It was complete with a
backstop, infield perfectly manicured (well, almost, except where the sheep did
their thing too often near second base -- great for sliding), a snow fence is
left, and in right field a wire fence that housed the hogs. Arizona may have
its swimming pool in right field, and the Green Monster will always be a
special wall in Boston, but I'll bet there aren't too many ball parks where, when
you hit a home run, you have to jump over the right field fence and run into the
pig pen to retrieve the baseball. Geez, the memories.
My point? My dad built us a baseball field to appreciate green. He built us
a baseball field to appreciate the outdoors and use that green space. He built
us that baseball field so we'd have a keen interest in sports (someday I'll
tell you about the football field he built for us too). He built us a
baseball field so we'd learn how to care for sheep and make it seem like we were
having fun while we did it. Sometimes I wish I'd have told him more often how
much I appreciated that ball yard. Especially when I pretended to be Mickey
Mantle hitting a towering home run into the pig pen.
Dad is looking down on me now from his green spaces in the sky. He knows
about the importance of maintaining green spaces. That's why he always had so
many chores for us on the farm after mowing and trimming the field (and the rest
of our yard to boot on a weekly basis during the summer).
YEA! is about appreciating green spaces in your own yard. I know how lucky I
was to have been enlightened about the importance of well-maintained green
spaces. Play ball!
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