After hearing “I’m really busy,” followed by a phone hanging up, Ki Matsko found herself in what she called “a desperate situation” at her job a while back.
As the program director at Project EverGreen, a nonprofit devoted to preserving, developing and enhancing green spaces in America, she had a major hand in the organization’s “GreenCare for Troops” program, where lawn care, landscaping and snow removal professionals take care of military families’ yards for free when the service member is deployed. Families stationed in Texas needed someone — but she couldn’t find any companies willing to step up, including one owner who explained that he simply had no room in his schedule before abruptly ending the conversation.
But then he unexpectedly called back two hours later. “I don’t think we’d have a company if it weren’t for those people out there fighting for our freedoms,” he told Matsko, the daughter of a WWII Army veteran and mother of a West Point graduate. “Shame on me for not letting that resonate with me sooner. I’d love to volunteer.”
Just another day in the life of an organization offering practical acts of service to military spouses who are often managing households, children and daily life independently while a loved one is absent. Wisconsin National Guard wife Hannah Degner learned about GreenCare for Troops around seven years ago at a Yellow Ribbon Program event prior to her husband’s deployment.
“I was like, ‘Being pregnant, I probably should look into this,’” she remembered. “It was really cool to be matched up with a local company like that, to help alleviate some of the deployment stress.”
The experience impacted Degner so much that she is now an official staff member, managing eight states for GreenCare for Troops. In the 20 years the program has been in existence, more than 15,000 volunteers from every state have provided mowing, edging, weeding, pest control and snow removal to over 20,000 military families. Totaled up, it’s worth more than $20 million.
GreenCare for Troops is different from many military-focused nonprofit offerings, some of which focus on less-tangible support services like moral support, emotional help or one-time networking events.
“Since military families move around a lot, they don’t always get a sense of community outside of the base,” said Matsko. “They have base help, but I think it really says a lot when a local company says, ‘You’re in my neighborhood and I’ll have your back’ like ours do.”
Sometimes, Matsko said, volunteers stick around to help with other things, like lawnmower repair. It’s an act of service that is really a giant “thank you,” especially for those who may not be good with words.
“When people say, ‘Let me know what you need!’ and you don’t know how to answer — lawnmowing is a service you need,” Degner said. “So reach out and register!”
Matsko agreed. “When a company knows they’ve got a military family on their route, there’s a sense of pride,” she said. “It’s a good feeling all around.”
Visit GreenCare for Troops, for more information, including registering or volunteering for services.
