Registration is now open for this year’s Renewal & Remembrance, presented by NALP and powered by Stanley Black & Decker. The event will take place on July 13-14, 2025.
This event serves as a time for landscape professionals to dedicate their time and skills to giving back and honoring our nation’s heroes.
There are two volunteer projects to choose from. At Arlington National Cemetery, volunteers will apply lime, plant flowers, install tree lightning protection and complete landscape and hardscape improvements. Due to limited capacity, this event is restricted to actively working volunteers.
A Children’s Program is also available at ANC. Each participating child requires the on-site presence of one parent or legal guardian who cannot be assigned to a separate volunteer task.
Additionally, in partnership with the National Park Service, volunteers have the opportunity to take on a large-scale project at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Memorial.
“We take preserving and maintaining our presidential memorials, war memorials, the MLK memorial and the National Mall and all of the other memorials very seriously,” says Matthew Morrison, an arborist with NPS. “NALP has all of the landscape professionals’ know-how and ability to turn our dreams into reality.”
The FDR project includes tasks such as planting flowers and shrubs, spreading wood chip mulch, removing a chain link fence, and vertical mulching to improve tree health and soil vitality.
The FDR Memorial was dedicated in 1997 and utilizes stone, water and landscaping to tell the story of FDR’s presidency. The memorial consists of five outdoor rooms. One serves as a prologue, and the other four address the four challenging terms of FDR, including the Great Depression and World War II.
Twenty-two quotes from Roosevelt’s presidency are engraved throughout the memorial, such as “We have faith that future generations will know here, in the middle of the twentieth century, there came a time when men of good will found a way to unite, and produce, and fight to destroy the forces of ignorance, and intolerance, and slavery, and war.”
There are also 30 cherry trees in need of pruning at the memorial.
“We are pruning primarily for aesthetics,” Morrison says. “The Migratory Bird Treaty Act prevents us from pruning trees until after August 15th each year. Since we’re looking at pruning off only the trunk “suckers” otherwise known as epicormic branches that are typically found on the tree trunks between the grade and approximately 6′ high.”
There is no fee to participate in Monday’s volunteer events. There is a $100 per person fee for the celebratory reception and dinner held Sunday evening, July 13, at the Washington Marriott at Metro Center. This special gathering is a great way to connect with fellow volunteers before Renewal & Remembrance begins.
Register for Renewal & Remembrance today! Spots are limited.
