New Franchisees Donate Landscaping Labor During Training Week ...

It was a sunny and mild November day in Temple, Texas. As the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) of Temple comes into view, bright yellow-and-green ?I Care? shirts stand out against the faded autumn leaves.

On November 8, four new The Grounds Guys? franchise owners took a break from their busy training week in Waco, forty miles to the north, to join The Grounds Guys corporate staff and Bell County franchise owner, William Johnson, for Monika Day, a day of giving back to the community. They spent the afternoon clearing flowerbeds, trimming trees, cleaning up the playground, and planting pansies and daffodil bulbs. They wrapped up the day by cooking dinner for the house residents and staff, all the time having fun in the process.

During training week, new The Grounds Guys owners joined local franchisees and the home office staff at RMHC of Temple to beautify the property and give back for Monika Day.

This was the second annual Monika Day in the U.S., established to honor the memory of Monika Woerlen, the late sister of the ten Van Stralen brothers who founded?The Grounds Guys in Canada. On a tragic day in 2004, she and her seven children died in a house fire in Canada.

The Grounds Guys wanted to dedicate the anniversary of her death as a day to give back to families. RMHC, of which The Grounds Guys is a national corporate sponsor, was a natural fit. RMHC has 290 houses in the U.S. that provide housing for families who are away from home to seek medical treatment for a sick child. Nationwide, RMHC supports 4.5 million families annually.

?Monika Day is a day for us to go out and share the Culture of Care on a grand scale, from coast to coast,? said Peter Van Stralen, founding member of?The Grounds Guys. ?The purpose of this day is to touch as many lives as possible, to turn a tragedy? a day of sadness, a day of mourning? into a day of

The Grounds Guys of Spokane, Washington volunteer at their local RMHC house for Monika Day.

happiness and giving, a day of turning lives around. When you put smiles on people?s faces, you take their mind off the troubles they?re going through, and you help them to heal. That?s really what this is all about.?

In 2012, The Grounds Guys franchisees hosted Monika Day events and donated labor to local RMHC houses all over the country, including Charlotte, N.C., Hartford, Conn., Sonoma, Calif., Virginia Beach, Va., and many others.

To learn more about RMHC?s services to families and volunteer opportunities, visit www.rmhc.com.

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Chrissy Ronje, The Grounds Guys? MarCom Specialist, plants flowers in the memory garden, with bricks commemorating children who have passed away.

Brianne Rechy, Strategic Accounts Manager for The Grounds Guys, starts the afternoon off with a smile at RMHC.

The Grounds Guys kick Monika Day off with a huddle in Temple, Texas.

Tags: landscaping business, landscaping franchise, monika day, peter van stralen, rmhc, rmhc of temple, The Grounds Guys, The Grounds Guys franchise

This entry was posted on Friday, November 9th, 2012 at 3:36 pm and is filed under The Grounds Guys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.leadingtheserviceindustry.com/blog/2012/11/09/new-franchisees-donate-landscaping-labor-during-training-week/

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Supreme Court to hear key voting rights case

The Supreme Court will decide whether or not to scale back the landmark Voting Rights Act, which requires states with a history of discrimination at the polls to get federal permission before making any changes in how they conduct elections. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

By NBC's Pete Williams

Agreeing to hear another important case on race in America, the Supreme Court said Friday it will take up a battle over a key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act. Civil rights groups fear the court will use this case to gut the law.

Passed by Congress in 1965 and renewed four times since then, most recently in 2006, a key provision requires states with a history of discrimination at the polls to get federal permission before making any changes to election procedures -- from redrawing congressional district boundaries to changing the locations of polling places.

The law was at the core of the legal cases this year blocking strict new voter ID laws in Texas and South Carolina.

Shelby County, Ala., claims the pre-clearance requirement -- which currently covers nine entire states, 12 cities and 57 counties elsewhere -- is unconstitutional. Under the law, those states and areas are presumed to be acting improperly whenever they seek election changes and "must either go hat in hand to Justice Department officialdom to seek approval, or embark on expensive litigation in a remote judicial venue," says the lawyer for the county.

The areas covered by the law, Shelby County says, include some localities that have made substantial reforms while missing other parts of the country that have failed to root out discrimination at the polls.? "Florida has been forced into pre-clearance litigation to prove that reducing early voting from 14 days to 8 is not discriminatory, when states such as Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania have no early voting at all," the county says.

But the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund says the current map is a close enough fit to cover the areas of greatest concern.? "Congress is not a surgeon with a scalpel when it acts to legislate across the 50 states. But it can reasonably attack discrimination where it finds it," the group says.

Three years ago, the Supreme Court narrowly rejected a challenge to the pre-clearance? requirement but strongly suggested that several justices had doubts about its constitutionality, given recent electoral reforms. "Things have changed in the South," the court said in 2009.? "Blatantly discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare."

Last month, the Supreme Court heard another racially charged case, re-examining whether the nation's colleges can use affirmative action in admissions.

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Source: http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/09/15054843-supreme-court-to-hear-key-voting-rights-case?lite

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Open House: 20 Ralph Street, Glebe - Saturday Nov. 10th 2-4 pm ...

Absolutely a must see! This charming home exudes warmth and a sense of home from the moment you walk in the front foyer! Soaring ceilings, gleaming hardwood floors, high baseboards and so much more. This 3 bedroom two bath luxury semi has it all! Main floor family room, large entertaining main level,large gourmet kitchen coupled with three nice sized bedrooms make this the perfect home. Situated on a quiet street with great neighbours!

More details

Source: http://blog.tracyarnett.com/open-house-20-ralph-street-glebe-saturday-nov

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Pope to join celebs, presidents with Twitter feed

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Celebrities do it. Presidents do it. Now even the pope will do it.

The Vatican spokesman said Thursday that Pope Benedict XVI will start tweeting from a personal Twitter account, perhaps before the end of the year.

The 85-year-old Benedict sent his first tweet from a Vatican account last year when he launched the Vatican's news information portal. The new Twitter account will be his own, though it's doubtful Benedict himself will wrestle down his encyclicals, apostolic exhortations and other papal pronouncements into 140-character bites.

Benedict, who writes longhand and doesn't normally use a computer, will more likely sign off on tweets written in his name.

Spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi says details about Benedict's handle and other information will come when the Vatican officially launches the account.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-08-Vatican-Tweeting%20Pope/id-b97b28900c0443e39433e2e7fe07c89e

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