Forbes: 5 Women Flourishing in the Male-Dominated Landscaping Industry
BrightView’s Branch Manager, Chequita Mccullough, recognized by Forbes Magazine
While more than 80 percent of U.S. landscaping companies are owned by men, women are rising to the top and determined to make their mark.
Chequita Mccullough started with BrightView as a business developer in the California Bay Area, where she was able to observe the crews and listen to the operations team. Now a Branch Manager, she recognizes that basic management and business principles are similar across most industries.
“Although I’m still learning, with the mentoring and leadership development opportunities my company offers, especially for women, I know the opportunities at BrightView are limitless,” Mccullough says. Chequita says her purpose is to “lead and inspire people to be the absolute best in their lives, relationships and careers.”
Philadelphia’s Historic Independence Mall Re-Opens: First Phase of Landscaping Renovations Completed by BrightView
BrightView and The National Park Services re-open the National Mall to visitors
The National Park Service and BrightView Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BV) (“BrightView”), the nation’s leading commercial landscaping services company, today announced the re-opening of Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, marking the end of the first phase of the company’s in-kind donation to Independence National Historical Park.
Independence Mall has been closed since work began on the project March 25. BrightView crews made significant improvements to the landscape, including the replacement of nearly 100,000 square feet of damaged sod, as well as irrigation repair, tree care and improvements to gardens along the Mall’s perimeter.
“Independence Mall is one of the nation’s most important historical sites and a destination for both Philadelphia residents and visitors to our city,” said Andrew Masterman, BrightView President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our company is headquartered here and it was our honor – in partnership with the National Park Service and our valued suppliers -- to help bring the landscape back to what its designers intended more than a decade ago.”
INHP Superintendent Cynthia MacLeod said, “We are sincerely grateful to BrightView for this valuable in-kind donation. This landscaping project in front of Independence Hall – a World Heritage Site and the birthplace of our nation, will enhance the visits for our millions of visitors to enjoy all of the Park and make their connections with history. Independence Mall looks beautiful, and we are thrilled it will be showcased during all of our special events and other park festivities."
BrightView acknowledges its suppliers who also made significant contributions to the project:
With Independence Mall now re-opened to visitors, BrightView will begin work on the second phase of its donation to NPS: Maintaining the Independence Mall landscape for the next year, free of charge. Later this year, team members from BrightView operations throughout the eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and northern Delaware will participate in volunteer days at INHP to ensure the landscape continues to look its best.
Photographs and video of the project, including sound bites from Andrew Masterman and Cynthia MacLeod, can be accessed here.
About Independence National Historical Park
Independence National Historical Park is one of over 400 places within the National Park Service and is often referred to as the birthplace of our nation. Millions visit the park each year to see the Liberty Bell, an international symbol of freedom, and Independence Hall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated, adopted and signed. Here are stories about the events and the lives of the diverse population during the years when Philadelphia was the capital of the United States from 1790 to 1800. It is the site of the nation's executive mansion in which Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived and where nine enslaved people served the first president. Spanning over 55 acres, the park has over 20 buildings open to the public during the summer months.
BrightView Landscapes and National Park Service Join Forces on Improvements to Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park
BrightView has committed to maintain the Block One landscape of Independence National Historical Park for a full year at no cost to the National Park Service.
The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and BrightView Landscapes LLC, the nation’s leading commercial landscaping services company, today announced a plan to make significant improvements to the grounds of one of America’s most treasured and historic sites, Independence National Historical Park (INHP) in Philadelphia.
BrightView, headquartered in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., is donating landscape rehabilitation work to INHP, including the complete replacement of sod in the park’s most visited section, Block One of Independence Mall, bounded by the Liberty Bell Center on South Sixth Street and Independence Hall on Chestnut Street. Work is scheduled to begin today and likely will continue until the end of April. The lawn will remain roped off through May to allow the sod to take root.
In addition to turf remediation, BrightView has committed to repair or replace the Block One irrigation system, to make significant improvements to the gardens and hardscape along South Independence Mall East, to improve beds surrounding the Liberty Bell Center, and to provide arbor care for trees along the east and west sides of Block One. BrightView also has committed to maintain the Block One landscape for a full year at no cost to NPS.
“We are sincerely grateful to BrightView for this much needed in-kind donation. This landscaping project in front of Independence Hall – a World Heritage Site and the birthplace of our nation, will beautify the Park for our millions of visitors to enjoy as they move through the grounds and make their connections with history,” said Park Superintendent Cindy MacLeod. “We truly appreciate Independence Historical Trust for facilitating the relationship between INHP and BrightView.”
BrightView is donating landscape rehabilitation work to Independence National Historical Park, including the complete replacement of sod in the park’s most visited section, Block One of Independence Mall.
BrightView President and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Masterman said the company is honored to help.
“We’d like to thank the National Park Service for the privilege of working on this historic site and for helping to improve the experience for everyone visiting Independence National Historical Park,” he said. “BrightView is a national company, but Philadelphia is our home. INHP is a source of pride for everyone living in this community and for those who travel here from around the world to experience the history of America’s independence.”
INHP is not the first historic landscape developed or cared for by BrightView. The company installed new sod in the National Mall in Washington D.C. in 2011 and developed landscapes in New York’s Governors Island. BrightView also maintains landscapes at Virginia’s historic Colonial Williamsburg and Green-Wood Cemetery, a National Historic Landmark in Brooklyn, N.Y.
BrightView and Independence National Historical Park will host a ribbon cutting event for the new Block One landscape work later in the spring.
About Independence National Historical Park
Independence National Historical Park is one of over 400 places within the National Park Service and is often referred to as the birthplace of our nation. Millions visit the park each year to see the Liberty Bell, an international symbol of freedom, and Independence Hall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated, adopted and signed. Here are stories about the events and the lives of the diverse population during the years when Philadelphia was the capital of the United States from 1790 to 1800. It is the site of the nation's executive mansion in which Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived and where nine enslaved people served the first president. Spanning over 55 acres, the park has over 20 buildings open to the public during the summer months.
L.A. Lakers: Comerica Bank Best of LA Women's Business Awards Program 2018-19
Caroline Weilert has also co-founded Growth in Relationships and Opportunities for Women (GROW) within the company to advocate for the women of BrightView.
Caroline Weilert, BrightView Vice President of Marketing and Brand Management, was recently awarded the Comerica Bank Best of LA Women’s Business Award for the month of December.
Along with her many BrightView marketing duties, Caroline co-founded Growth in Relationships and Opportunities for Women (GROW) within the company to advocate for the women of BrightView.
“It was an extremely proud moment for me personally, but more importantly, it also validates all the work we have begun to do at BrightView to recruit, promote, and retain more talented women within our organization,” Weilert said. “Although GROW is not my full-time job, it is my passion project. It’s a cause I wholeheartedly believe will make a lasting difference for the women at BrightView. Though we may still be in our infancy with it, we’re continually adding more programming and opportunities for involvement. Receiving recognition for this only fuels me to do more.”
Once a month, from November 2018 to March 2019, Comerica Bank honors and recognizes five women in leadership within five counties in Southern California with the award. Each of the five selected per month are based on five categories: Woman of Entrepreneurship, Woman of Business, Woman of Philanthropy, Women of Diversity, and Woman of Promise. Weilert was chosen for the Woman of Business category, which acknowledges women executives who are non-owners of the business.
To be considered, the women have to be nominated and submit a 500-word essay discussing her career success and qualifications. Winners are then recognized each month at a Los Angeles Lakers game.
BrightView, CBRE Install Trees, Landscape, Garden for South Dallas YMCA
Park South Family YMCA now has an attractive landscape and a vegetable garden to serve local community
BrightView donated all of the plant material for the project and also installed 12 new trees on the campus.
BrightView has partnered with CBRE Group, Inc., the world’s largest commercial real estate and investment firm, to renew the landscape at an underserved YMCA in Texas. The Park South Family YMCA is a central hub for the community, but has had an unattractive landscape and vegetable garden that was never completed.
BrightView employees led teams of volunteers from CBRE to install flower pots, enhance the landscape, and bring in topsoil for the vegetable garden. Members of the YMCA will now be able to grow produce for their community and also use the garden as an educational tool.
BrightView donated all of the plant material for the project and also installed 12 new trees on the campus.
“Trees play a vital role in our everyday lives by improving air and water quality, as well as providing shade for cooling and beautifying our communities,” said Lisa Colicchio, Vice President of Sustainabilityat CBRE. “We are proud to partner with BrightView for this event during Green Week to benefit the children and community at Park South Family YMCA today and for future generations.”
Now that the project is completed, volunteers from the YMCA will be coached by BrightView on watering and maintenance so that the new garden and landscape will thrive.
“This project is a way to help our community increase its environmental IQ while leaving a lasting, beautiful aesthetic, which is so important in blighted communities,” said Rodrigua Ross, District Executive Director at Park South Family YMCA. “Additionally, this generous project allows us to help our kids see the parallels between their growth and the growth of these gorgeous trees and plants, creating a visual reminder of their own strength and resilience.”
Hunt Heroes Foundation and BrightView Landscapes Partner to Donate Bikes to Military Children
Fifty military children received new bicycles and helmets
Fifty military children received new bicycles and helmets that were donated to the Hunt Heroes Foundation from BrightView, a partner of Hunt Military Communities on many of its properties.
Hunt Heroes Foundation (HHF), Hunt Military Communities Mgmt., LLC ("HMC"), a nonprofit organization, and BrightView Landscapes, the nation's leading commercial landscape company, recently partnered up to give 50 lucky military children new bicycles and helmets just in time for the holiday season. All 50 of the bicycles were generously donated to the HHF from BrightView, a partner of HMC on many of its properties.
"BrightView was truly honored to donate these bicycles to the Hunt Heroes Foundation," said John Chapman, BrightView Regional Key Account Manager. "These bicycles were purchased by BrightView and assembled as part of a team building exercise for our employees. We knew we wanted them to be put to good use so donating them to military children, through the HHF, made a lot of sense."
The bicycles were given away as part of a contest where military children, under the age of 16, had to write an essay on what it meant to be the child of a service member. Nearly 200 entries were received from almost every Hunt property nationwide.
"The judges had an extremely hard time narrowing it down to 50 winners," said John Ehle, Hunt Heroes Foundation President. "There were so many good, heart-tugging essays that we really wish each person who entered could win. We are so grateful to BrightView for their generosity and for helping make so many children's holidays a little brighter this year."
Portions of some of the winning essays are below:
"I am thankful for being a military child because I love my dad and he is in the military. I love him but sometimes he has to leave to help or save people around the world." -Zyla V. Floyd, 8 years old.
"My dad is in the military. He goes to far away work for a long time. It means we don't always get to spend holidays together. It means I have to be brave for mom when he is not home. It means when other kids have their dad for the holidays mine may have to work. But when my dad is home it's super special." -Allen Corban, 8 years old.
"For me, being a military child is sometimes not so easy. It takes a lot of work to be in the military so there's a lot of times when my dad is gone. But, I know that he is doing good work, and that he is always there to take care of me, even when he's not right there next to me." -David Potter, 15 years old.
About Hunt Heroes Foundation
Formed in 2018, the Hunt Heroes Foundation proudly serves military families, partners and communities through opportunities and ideas generated by our people and partnerships. Together, the HHF will discover new ways to ensure we help bring a positive change to the communities in which we live and work. http://huntheroesfoundation.org/
About Hunt Military Communities
As the most experienced and largest owner of military housing in the nation, Hunt Military Communities offers unsurpassed quality and service to more than 200,000 residents in over 52,000 homes on Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Army installations throughout the country. With a 50-year legacy and a partnership with the Department of Defense, Hunt strives to build communities characterized by three clear promises: 5-star service, connectedness, and a culture of trust. For more information, visit www.huntmilitarycommunities.com.
ALCC: BrightView Program GROWs Successful Women in the Industry
BrightView's Kate Douglas Kestyn is encouraged with the recruitment of women currently being down by local branches.
BrightView’s Growth in Relationships and Opportunities for Women (GROW) was created with a mission of attracting, retaining, and promoting women within the company. As one of its first tasks, GROW surveyed the approximately 1,300 women at BrightView and learned that they overwhelmingly liked working for the company, feel their opinions matter and are heard and respected by supervisors and male peers, and they love what they do and feel they work with great people in a great company.
“Women in business typically wear a lot of hats and are crucial to our success – so how do we ensure there is a viable path for every woman in our organization?” said BrightView’s Kate Douglas Kestyn.
Kestyn, who is one of the founders of GROW, said she is encouraged seeing how local branches are trying to recruit more women. She also is gratified to see many of these women being promoted through the ranks.
BrightView Teams Prepare as Local Communities are Threatened During an Active Hurricane Season
When a catastrophic event occurs, BrightView prepares to dispatch teams and respond faster than other landscape service providers
BrightView's North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia branches prepare for Hurricane Florence.
In mid-September, warnings for Hurricane Florence were issued in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. As a Category 4 storm, record rainfalls and a massive storm surge were anticipated as Florence headed for coastal towns and beaches. Due to the severity of the storm, state officials issued evacuation protocols, causing more than 1 million people to flee their homes for safety. When our models predicted that Hurricane Florence would likely have an impact, Branch Managers began their preparations in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, which included enacting BrightView’s Preliminary Response Plan:
Communication with all customers in the anticipated affected areas. Branches offer up manpower, heavy equipment, and chainsaws immediately to clients and properties in need.
Service all equipment in preparation for travel.
Preemptively work with rental companies to retain extra heavy equipment in times of distress.
Managers resourced emergency response teams who committed to open-ended stays in areas where Hurricane Florence was anticipated.
Five days before the storm was projected to hit the tree crews, chip and grapple trucks were serviced and lined up to respond, if directed.
BrightView provides daily updates to those who pre-approved a storm response to communicate the state of their property and work we complete on site.
Upon the notification of any natural disaster, BrightView leaps to action to proactively prepare for all outcomes. With the unique ability to deploy teams from across the country to our local teams in need, BrightView is truly a 24/7 service provider, available to our customers and local communities 365 days a year in the wake of any emergency.
For the second consecutive year, BrightView’s Mid-Atlantic teams played host to a soccer tournament in Leesburg, Va. Participants included teams from 12 branches and more than 500 attendees. The region decided to take what many teams were already doing and build on it by creating an event for the entire Mid-Atlantic and team members’ families. In addition to soccer, the event included an ice cream truck, cotton candy machine, food from a local restaurant, and a dunk tank. Each attendee received a shirt, hat, koozie, cooling towel, and sunglass holders, while children received bubble wands and BrightView beach balls.
Maintenance
BrightView's Mid-Atlantic Region Hosts Annual Soccer Tournament
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, BrightView Install Gardens as Place to Learn, Reflect, and Heal
Reflective tranquility garden features 17 stones symbolizing lives lost
BrightView, working alongside students and faculty, re-graded the entire garden and existing walkways, added additional paver walkways, created and install a Florida-native educational garden and butterfly garden, and designed a reflective tranquility garden as a healing space.
Before the recent tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, students were working to create an outdoor learning space, but the ground was not well-graded and students weren’t able to maintain the area.
The tragic events of Feb. 14 shocked the entire Parkland community, including BrightView Business Developer Michael Lashbrook, who grew up in the area.
“It hit close to home – one of my good family friends was there,” he said. "After it happened, we all felt terrible. I was just trying to think of ways that I could help. Knowing that BrightView has the capabilities, I reached out to my friend to find out what we could do.”
Within a week, BrightView connected with the school and after several conversations the decision was made to focus on the outdoor learning space.
“It was a place where we could make a more immediate impact,” Lashbrook said.
The area wasn’t quite finished, but already contained several hand-crafted elements created by the students, including raised planter beds, a hydroponic garden, a telescope observatory, and solar-powered electric panels.
The reflective and tranquility garden has colorful plant material and a water feature in the center, as well as 17 glazed, solid granite stones lining the pathway to symbolize the 17 students and faculty who lost their lives.
“Initially, we came with the idea of creating a physical memorial garden for them, but the more we became involved with the students, we all came to the conclusion that what was most important was for them to just have a community gathering space,” said Bryan Walters, BrightView Account Manager. “This was a way to bring the students and faculty together to finish a project they had already been working on and to create a space they can use to reflect and move forward.”
It also became apparent that the school wanted to keep the structures that were already in place and the foundation of what they had created.
BrightView agreed to re-grade the entire garden and existing walkways, add additional paver walkways, create and install a Florida-native educational garden and butterfly garden, and design a reflective tranquility garden as a healing space for students and teachers.
The project kicked off April 14. BrightView team members were joined by more than 20 faculty and students to take part in the installation. Everything used that day was donated by BrightView’s suppliers.
A key piece of the area was the reflective and tranquility garden. The garden has colorful plant material and a water feature in the center. Lining the pathway are 17 glazed, solid granite stones to symbolize the 17 students and faculty who lost their lives on that tragic day.
Days after the tragic event of Feb. 14, BrightView reached out to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to find out what they could do and, working alongside students and faculty, helped finished the outdoor learning space and garden.
“The weight and mass of the stones were selected to represent the solidarity of unwavering placement of their lives in the community,” Walters said. “After everything was said and done, this became more than just a student project, but a day of healing, laughter, and fun for everyone. This entire project was our way to help the community and be there for our neighbors.”
On May 16, a dedication ceremony was held at the school as a way to thank everyone who was involved with the project.
“Every single day, I have students come up to me and express their appreciation of the garden area,” said Brandon Kyle Jeter, science teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. “Nothing makes me feel more fulfilled than seeing entire classes utilizing the space. I firmly believe that use of the reflection area is going to become incredibly important moving forward.”
