Summer Meeting 2018 Recap

Rick Haggard, INLA Executive Director

Photo credits to Designscape and Wayne Gruber. Hannah Newell

To those of you who were not able to make the 2018 INLA Summer Tour and INEF Shooting for Scholarships ... well, you really missed out. I cannot begin to say enough about the nice and positive feedback I have received from several individuals who were in attendance on either one or both days. The turnout was fabulous as there were 48 tour registrants and 55 dinner guests for the first day event, which was on Central Time, and 65 shooters took part in the Shooting for Scholarship Fundraiser, which conveniently was on Eastern Time for us from the Indy area.

The 2018 INLA Summer Meeting took place in Northwest Indiana, with Valparaiso being the host site and the Hampton Inn and Suites our host hotel. The INEF Shooting for Scholarships event took place at Back Forty Sporting Clays located in Bourbon, Indiana just east of Plymouth, Indiana.

The 2018 Summer Meeting Committee was led by INLA Vice President Dean Ricci and with assistance from Wayne Gruber (another former INLA board member) and Kevin VanSessen (future INLA board member?) along with several other volunteers.

Also this event would not run as smoothly without the assistance of these great ladies: Julie Gillen, Vickie Newell, Hannah Newell and Kim Glass.

Day 1: Tour

It was a little challenging as we had several last-minute registrations, which made me a little nervous regarding only having three 15-passenger vans rented to take the group around. Luckily several in attendance from the “region” wanted to drive to make the travel home after dinner closer for them, so it all turned out just fine.

Lunch was had on the first day at Hamstra Gardens in Wheatfield. Hamstra was such a pleasant and peaceful location and delicious food was catered by Yesteryear’s Meats Specialty Shoppe (voted best caterer in Jasper County in 2016). A special thanks to Brehob Nurseries LLC and Unilock for sponsoring this part of the tour.

Bob Scott’s residence (Ricci’s Landscape Mgmt project)

Hamstra Gardens just outside personal residence

House of the Future, Indiana Landmarks

Kriscke residence (Ricci’s Landscape Mgmt project)

Maplewood Cemetary (Hubinger Landscaping project)

lunch at Hamstra

short time. Items ranged from wine baskets, to statues, to Colts tickets, to the highest bid of the evening going to Bill Price of West Side Tractor Sales (also the dinner sponsor) for four skybox seats for either a Chicago Bulls or a Chicago Blackhawks game. This was supposed to be only two tickets, but thanks to Kevin VanSessen seeing the amount that was being bid, and also knowing this was for a scholarship fundraising, was changed to four tickets.

I cannot begin to give enough thanks to all who attended. It was great seeing all the camaraderie, passion, and networking going on during this event. Plus, it was great to see many in the industry who I may only get to see every once in a great blue moon, continue in conversations as though it was just the previous evening we had spoken.

Please see the itinerary of the tour on page 33, and feel free to contact me if you want further details on any of the stops … but you should have been there firsthand to have enjoyed the full effect.

The site for the 7th Annual Shooting for Scholarships was at Back Forty Sporting Clays located in Bourbon, Indiana — which is just a little east of Plymouth, Indiana. There were 65 registered sporting clay participants to take aim on the 13-station course. Each station had six shots per station and the best individual shooter was David Todd with a score of 69. Two other shooters tied for second with a score of 65. The best overall team was Team RLM – Ricci Landscape Management. After the shoot, lunch was catered by Back Forty themselves. Ryan and his staff made everyone feel very welcomed and provided a very nice setting to host this event. My preliminary numbers seem to show this as one of the most (if not the most) profitable events the INLA/INEF has had to date. Just in auction items alone over $6,700 was raised in two days.

Indiana Nursery & Landscape News • September/October 2018 9

The summer meeting would not be possible if it was not for the great partnerships we have developed with our sponsors. Below is a listing of those sponsors who enabled us to have such a wonderful, educational, and absolutely enjoyable couple of days with one another during the 2018 INLA Summer Tour and INEF Shooting for Scholarships.

Some of these are new sponsors, but hopefully will become long-term and develop a relationship with other INLA members.

Tour Transportation Sponsor Red Hen Turf Farm Schneider Nursery Hammond Optimist Club

Lunch Sponsor Unilock Brehob Nurseries LLC

Dinner Beverage Sponsor Edward Jones Niemeyer’s Landscape Supply RLM – Ricci Landscape

Management

Station Sponsor Blue Grass Farms West Side Tractor Sales Greendell Landscape Solutions M.J. Schuetz Insurance Services Brehob Nurseries LLC Rosebrick Supply R.A.L. Price Nurseries Niemeyer’s Landscape Supply SiteOne Landscape Supply

Shoot Beverage Sponsor RLM – Ricci Landscape

Management

Shoot Beverage Sponsor Hubingers Landscaping Northwest Indiana Landscapers

Association

More photos from the Summer Meeting are online at www.inla1.org.

Team Cardno

Team County Materials

Let the auction begin!

Team NWILA

Pete Sole, Jr. of Team Holeman

Team Price Nursery

Team Franco

Team Edgewood Building Supply + Jeremy Werner (yellow shirt) SiteOne station sponsor

On a personal note, it was great to see many of my mentors that I had gained from the association. Many of them I realize do not know I look to them as mentors, but they are the ones who helped me become the person I am today in this association.