ONLA State Association Ambassador

PLANET AEF President, David J. Frank, Landscape Industry Certified Manager. PLANET AEF recognizes that this scholarship program, which has funded over 500 scholarships in recent years, has significantly impacted professionals coming into the green industry.

The Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) is pleased to announce that the Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association (ONLA) has pledged $25,000 to the PLANET Academic Excellence Foundation (PLANET AEF) scholarship fund, thereby making it the very first state association to be designated a PLANET State Association Ambassador. As a result of this donation, the ONLA will be given a $1,000 annual scholarship in perpetuity.

PLANET AEF received a check from the ONLA in the amount of $25,000 in December 2010. PLANET AEF presented ONLA with the inaugural State Association Ambassador crystal at ONLA’s annual CENTS show held earlier this week in Columbus, Ohio.

The PLANET State Association Ambassador is able to establish the criteria for their scholarships by deciding the amount, the number of scholarships they will give to students, and which schools within their states that will receive these scholarships.

“The ONLA scholarship program has provided nearly $500,000 over the last 15 years alone. In our research in developing an ONLA scholarship endowment, we discovered that PLANET’s Academic Excellence Foundation dovetailed nicely with our strategic goals of supporting students and advancing the association’s mission to provide leadership and guidance to Ohio’s green industry,” says ONLA’s Executive Director Kevin Thompson.  “As Ohio’s only all-encompassing green industry association, we are proud to become a PLANET AEF Ambassador, ensuring that a scholarship in the ONLA’s name would be available for future generations.”

“All of us active in PLANET AEF recognize that this scholarship program, which has funded over 500 scholarships in recent years, has significantly impacted professionals coming into the green industry,” says PLANET AEF President, David J. Frank, Landscape Industry Certified Manager. 

For more information about PLANET AEF, visit LandcareNetwork.org