When the ABC television program Extreme Makeover: Home Edition came to Salem and transformed the campus of Oregon School for the Deaf, Oregon nurseries and landscapers were there pitching in. Show organizers got in touch with the Oregon Association of Nurseries, and member/past president Kathy LeCompte of Brooks Tree Farm in Brooks, Ore. took the lead in rounding up growers to help.

LeCompte received a plant list on Thursday, Sept. 2 and had all the material lined up by the following Wednesday, Sept. 8. It was delivered Thursday and Friday and installed Saturday, Sept. 11. “So many nurseries stepped up that I actually had members calling to say,’I didn’t get to give anything. What do you still need?'” LeCompte said. “In the end, we had enough material to landscape a complete extra building, used as office space.”

Participating nurseries included Alpha Nursery of Salem, Fisher Farms of Gaston, Kraemer’s Nursery of Mt. Angel, Simnitt Nursery of Canby, Blue Heron Farms of Independence, Drake’s Crossing Nursery of Silverton, Blooming Nursery of Cornelius, Heritage Seedlings of Salem, Teufel Landscape/Nursery of Portland and Al’s Garden Centers of Woodburn. Landscapers DeSantis Landscapes and Greenacres coordinated the plan drawn by landscape architect Jim Sahlstrom. Alpha Nursery received the plants and delivered them to the school.

The Salem Statesman-Journal has published several stories covering the weeklong process of fixing up the campus, and you can find those stories here.

—Pictured are Kathy LeCompte and Dean DeSantis. Photo courtesy of Kathy LeCompte.