Sometimes a spring landscaping cleanup is about more than cutting back perennials and hauling away weeds.
It’s about making a place tidy and fresh, so the people who live there can be proud to call it home.
A group of volunteers from Level Green Landscaping spent a recent morning cleaning up the property at The Light House, Inc. in Annapolis, a homeless prevention support center that provides shelter and services, helping people as they transition toward jobs, housing, and self sufficiency.
“People live there, both families and single individuals,” says Paul Wisniewski, division manager at Level Green. “There’s a kitchen where they give out meals. A community center with computers that’s a big gathering place. We want to make this place, their home, presentable.”
Beyond providing food, clothing, and shelter, The Light House also addresses the underlying causes of homelessness, including lack of marketable job skills, addiction, and the debilitating effects of mental and physical health issues.
It’s a big mission that leaves little time to worry about the property’s landscaping.
“They rely on volunteers to help out,” Wisniewski says. “We’d rather they focus on the good work that they do and let us help with the landscaping.”
So that’s what happened in early April when a group from Level Green’s corporate headquarters and its Anne Arundel County branch converged at the Light House for a morning of spring cleanup.