RED Day Brings More Green to Maplewood

As many as 77,000 volunteers across the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) and Canada today participated in community improvement projects as part of Keller Williams second annual RED Day.

Locally, Keller Williams Mid-Town Direct Realty worked with Maplewood Middle School parents Janet Crane, Barbara Ray and Jane Conrad to clean up the grounds around Maplewood Middle School. According to agent Willie Gartenlaub, as many as 30 volunteers got their hands dirty between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. today weeding, raking and planting flower beds in front of the school and in the courtyard area in back.

Keller Williams' agent Christine Casey was the team leader on the local project. She was joined by Dave Salmon, Gartenlaub, Casey's husband Kevin and many others.

RED Day, explained Gartenlaub, was started in 2009 in honor of Keller Williams Realty Vice Chairman Mo Anderson's birthday. RED stands for "Renew, Energize and Donate." Apparently, the much beloved Anderson felt that projects to benefit communities would be a better gift than the thousands of birthday cards she usually received.

To fulfill Anderson's wish, all 690-plus Keller Williams' offices were charged with finding a worthy project. In Maplewood, Ray and Conrad were happy to have the help in their backbreaking garden work. The two women have children at MMS—Hans Brown (Ray's son) and Henry Conrad-Poor (Conrad's son)—but also spend extensive amounts of time working Seth Boyden Elementary School's gardens where their children have also attended school.

By 1:30 p.m. the volunteers were tired but still cheerful. "It really looks great," said Salmon, as he surveyed the courtyard and pointed out new plantings.