At Outdoor Illumination, we pride ourselves in being positive contributors to the community.

Throughout the year, we are sure to make ourselves available for outreach towards numerous causes. Recently:

• Outdoor Illumination is very proud of our volunteering partnership with the Tregaron Conservancy in Northwest Washington. Every year in February, our staff joins Tregaron personnel to tackle a late-winter project aimed to improve the park not just for the coming season, but for the long-term health of the land as well. In February 2018, we worked to clear an invasive stand of bamboo, a perennial problem for many land owners. In a thank you letter, Tregaron Executive Director Lynn Parseghian wrote, "[A] tremendously productive day by your crew at Tregaron! Despite rainy, muddy conditions, they soldiered through and cleared a huge amount of tall bamboo from our Lower Pond Valley. The view along the stream bed is now beginning to be revealed, and before too long it will be magnificent! We are enormously grateful to your company for volunteering your services to help us heal the land from decades of invasive growth. I will spread the word through our various channels. When we lead tours, I regularly tout your terrific volunteer support. Many thanks again for an incredibly productive day!"
• February 2018 was a busy month for our community and volunteering efforts. A week after our work at Tregaron, we geared up to tackle more invasive species, this time up in Bethesda, with the Little Falls Watershed Alliance. Executive Director Sarah Morse related a story to us about our staff, and it's the kind of story we know all too well: "On behalf of the Little Falls Watershed Alliance, I would like to thank you for sending Eddie and Lex over yesterday to clear non-native invasive from the banks of the Little Falls Branch in Bethesda. We worked in the Green Acres neighborhood along the creek at Little Falls Drive where we are working in partnership with DOT to put in native landscaping. Thanks to you, the area is now cleared and ready for spring planting. It will get under-story trees, grasses and wildflowers. […] Your workers were so enthusiastic, hard working, and committed to the project. I really can't say enough about them. Let's just say that digging out 12 or so huge bush honeysuckle stumps was their idea of fun. After finishing a really large and challenging stump, which I thought would be the last for the day, they went on and dug out another 6 in the 20 minutes we had before quitting time. They wanted to make sure they didn't leave anything undone. Please thank the guys again for me, and thank you for your stewardship." We say thank you for the opportunity to help, and for Eddie and Lex to get their stump on.
• In February 2017, Outdoor Illumination personnel spent the day clearing debris and installing meadow fencing at the Tregaron Conservancy in Woodley Park. We received a very kind thank-you letter from the organization, which gives us great pride and reaffirms our commitment to give back to the community in the best ways that we can. In the letter, Executive Director Lynn Parseghian wrote: "Thank you again for volunteering the services of your company to the Tregaron Conservancy to perform landscaping work last month. It was a pleasure working with your team, and they were enormously helpful in clearing storm debris from paths and fields, removing old stumps, and installing protective fencing around our newly-seeded native meadows. As a small nonprofit organization, the Conservancy relies solely on private contributions and volunteer support from the community for everything we do. Tregaron is a beloved green space in the city and we will continue to share news of your pro bono work for the Conservancy through our various communications with the public. We are tremendously grateful for your company's in-kind contibution of volunteer work to help us beautify and enhance the environment at Tregaron. We would welcome the opportunity to partner with you again in the future to help you promote your business while fulfilling our mission of rehabilitating the landscape."
• On March 6, 2016, Outdoor Illumination was honored by the Little Falls Watershed Alliance for its long support of LFWA's work to protect the natural environment in lower Montgomery County and upper northwest Washington DC. In an announcement, Sarah Morse, LFWA Executive Director, stated: "We would like to recognize your company - you were the first people to reach out to us to help! And still the only small company that gives us time. We get [support from various large corporations] who do big community service days with a lot of PR and hoopla, but yours is the company that really saw the need and offered to help. We really appreciate it." We are proud to help maintain and preserve the Little Falls Watershed (click link to see a map of the Watershed), and look forward to continuing to provide support for many years to come.
• In late April 2015, associates of Outdoor Illumination worked together with employees of Booz Allen Hamilton to help clean, paint and improve a Veteran's residence in Takoma Park, Maryland, in a community improvement initiative sponsored by Rebuilding Together Montgomery County. (Photo of the volunteers and their dumptruck, at left, was taken by BAH volunteer Kevin Longacre.)
• Landscaping & Lighting on a Day of Service: Outdoor Illumination worked with Kane Landscaping on Earth Day 2015 (April 22) to renovate the neglected and overgrown backyard of a home for individuals with mental and intellectual disabilities in Northern Virginia. Click for for more information about the National Association of Landscape Professionals' National Day of Service.
• Pro Bono work on the Green Roof at the ASLA National Headquarters: Outdoor Illumination designed the outdoor lighting for the green roof on the headquarters building of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in downtown Washington, D.C. Said Nancy Somerville, executive vice president and CEO of ASLA: “As an ASLA member and a leader in the landscape lighting field, Outdoor Illumination has been generous in sharing their experience and technical expertise with our design and construction team.” Our design created an outdoor room at night, employing indirect lighting via efficient halogen lamps. Aimed at creating comfort and safety for associates and guests, the perimeters were to be defined and the initial walk out was gently illuminated.
• We joined members of All Saint's Church, Boy Scout Troop 52 and the Rotary Club of Chevy Chase to volunteer in "Rebuilding Together". Our staff provided volunteer hours to paint, clean, and provide carpentry, electrical and yard work to make a home in Northeast Washington DC more livable.
• We performed volunteer work at Brookside Garden's annual "Garden of Light" Wrapping gifts on behalf of RFB&D (Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic). In December, Outdoor associates were among 152 volunteers that gift-wrapped for a total of 285 hours, raising $5,051.34 for the RFB&D.
• We performed volunteer work at Hillwood Museum and Gardens, removing invasive plants and ivy climbing mature hardwoods in the forest.
• Part of the Outdoor Illumination team spent a week in East Biloxi rebuilding houses with Habitat for Humanity. Volunteer work has accounted for the majority of home rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.