Volunteers plow driveways, mow lawns for military families

WASILLA - Dave Rykaczewski of Mat-Su Landscaping and Lawn Maintenance doesn't remember exactly how he got involved with the nonprofit Project EverGreen's SnowCare for Troops and GreenCare for Troops.

He does remember it was his wife Luanne's idea, and that she persisted until he relented and told her to go ahead and add first one lawn, and then another, to his daily to-do list.

Based in New Prague, Minn., the national nonprofit partners with local volunteers to provide free lawn care to U.S. military families with family members serving overseas.

Rykaczewski's company volunteers to plow five Valley driveways and tend three lawns for local military families. But he said the need is much greater.

"I need my competitors to step up," said Rykaczewski, owner of Mat-Su Landscaping and Lawn Maintenance.

Ideally, Rykaczewski said snowplow businesses would coordinate through Project EverGreen and each would pick up a couple of families near current customers, so no one is driving 40 miles to plow for one family.

"The families I see tend to be young women carrying for several young children while their husbands are deployed overseas," he said. "What we get out of it is satisfaction. It just makes us feel really good."

"It is important for the Wasilla and Palmer areas to know that they have an incredible family owned company in their midst volunteering with Project EverGreen's SnowCare for Troops and GreenCare for Troops providing free snow removal and lawn care services to military families with currently deployed family members," program manager Joy Westenberg wrote in an email.

She said the program pairs military families with business or individual volunteers who will shoulder the burden of lawn care and snow removal for a year.

Since the program began in 2006, Westenberg said it has served more than 12,000 military families and more than 3,500 volunteers nationwide have registered with the program.

To participate or to volunteer, people must complete and submit a short online registration form available at projectevergreen.com/scft.

Westenberg said if she can locate a volunteer to help the family, the family will be contacted by email, although she noted that demand for help so far exceeds the supply of volunteers.

If a volunteer is located, it is then the military family's responsibility to contact the volunteer to schedule the service.

Volunteering is personal for Rykaczewski. He said his nephew has been deployed five times and he can see how his absence impacts his wife and children.

"I see what they are going through," he said.

When one partner is away, ordinary things like mowing the lawn and plowing the driveway can become overwhelming, Rykaczewski said. "It's a pleasure to eliminate that problem."

He shared the story of one young woman's response to learning about Project EverGreen.

After quoting her a price for six-weeks of service he said learned her spouse was in the military.

"Well that changes everything," Rykaczewski told her.

The woman was reduced to tears, he said, when he told her his company would provide the service free through Project EverGreen.

At the end of the summer when he ran into her by chance, she was still gushing about the service the business had provided to her family.

This wasthe third summer and the second winter Mat-Su Landscaping and Lawn Maintenance has participated, and individuals and businesses can participate at any level, even just a single house, Rykaczewski said.

"It's hard to say no," he said.

For more information, visit projectevergreen.com.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.