Landscaping kudos

Bragging rights for the best looking campus grounds go to Grand Valley State University this year. The Professional Grounds Management Society has awarded Grand Valley the top award in the 2002 PGMS Green Star Awards Program. The entry submitted by grounds supervisor Ken Stanton received the Grand Award in the school or university category.

The Grand Valley grounds staff maintains 500 acres, including athletic fields and specialized gardens on both the Allendale and the Grand Rapids campuses. Entries in the awards program are evaluated on quality, challenge and performance in grounds beautification and maintenance. The PGMS award brings national recognition to grounds maintained with a high degree of excellence, and recognizes individual professional efforts leading to high quality appearance of the landscape.

Previous winners of the Grand Award in the schools/university category include Duke University (2000), the University of Missouri (1999) and Illinois State University (1998). No grand award was given in this category in 2001.

Grand Valley's Ken Stanton will represent the university's entire grounds crew when he accepts the award at the Professional Grounds Management Society Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee on November 16.