Countryside Montessori Elementary gets new landscaping donated by Land O’ Lakes business
By Kyle LoJacono
Staff Writer
LAND O’ LAKES — Recent economic difficulties have forced everyone to save every penny, but when a little girl asked if Tony Holbrook of Tropical Landscaping Design Inc. could make her school look better, he could not say no.
The little girl is Giana DiFilippo, 8, who is a student at Countryside Montessori Elementary, located on Ehren Cutoff in Land O’ Lakes.
“I asked if Mr. Tony could make my school look as beautiful as our house,” Giana said.
Giana’s mother, Lynn DiFilippo, hired Holbrook to do landscaping work and to put in palm trees and other Floridian plants on her property.
“Tony did a great job on our house and did just what we wanted,” DiFilippo said. “I told Giana I would ask Tony if he could help us, but it had to be on a donation basis, and I wasn’t sure if that was possible.”
DiFilippo is a substitute teacher and volunteer at Countryside Montessori. Holbrook was able to donate the time and materials for the project, so administrative staff at Countryside Montessori only had to approve the project.
“We’ve done some charitable work at schools in past years, and we had the ability to do it again this year,” Holbrook said. “So when the daughter of a customer asked if we could help out at her school, I couldn’t turn her down. This community has kept our company growing through tough times. No amount of money can replace the feeling of giving and helping others.”
Holbrook, who has lived in the Tampa Bay area for 33 years, went to Lutz Elementary and moved to Land O’ Lakes from Tennessee four years ago. His partner at Tropical Landscaping is Jody Dickerson. Together, their main goal was to improve the drainage between some of the school’s buildings by putting in a river rock design. They also put in Floridian plants and did additional landscaping in the area.
“I also want to put in name tags so that the kids can learn about the plants,” Holbrook said. “I love plants, and maybe the area will spark some kid’s interest in plants, too.”
Dickerson, Holbrook and Holbrook’s son, Ryan, who recently was accepted at the University of South Florida as a pre-medical student, along with several others did the landscaping work on Nov. 6 and 7. Materials for the project cost between $3,000 and $3,500, and labor cost more than $1,000 a day. That brought the entire project’s cost to more than $5,000.
After the plants were put in, McGuire’s Beautiful Outdoors, located at 27251 SR 54 Suite B-14/525 in Wesley Chapel, put fertilizer on the plants and agreed to maintain the plants in the future.
“McGuire’s agreed to take care of the plants, which was a concern of mine because I want them to last so the kids can see them for a long time,” Holbrook said. “We work together with McGuire’s, and together we serve 1,000 customers from all over Pasco and down into Hillsborough.”
The area was revealed on Nov. 9 when the children and teachers came back from the weekend. Giana named the area the Peaceful Garden.
“To give that amount of time and energy into the school, it just amazing to me,” DiFilippo said. “The kids will have a much better school to go to every day now thanks to Tony.”
Holbrook did not just donate his time, energy and materials on the project. He also donated the day on Nov. 7 — his 40th birthday.
“I just planned the project and wasn’t thinking that it was my birthday,” Holbrook said. “Maybe I was trying to forget about it because no one wants to turn 40.
“When my son (Ryan) heard I was working on my birthday, he said as long as I was donating the day, he wanted to as well. He has done a lot of volunteering and earned an award for all the hours he has donated in high school, but this is special because it was last minute and was meant to help me on my birthday.”
Ryan has spent more than 300 hours volunteering while attending Tampa Catholic.
For more information on Tropical Landscaping, located at 5104 Land O’ Lakes Blvd. in Land O’ Lakes, call (813) 361-7004 or visit www.tropicallandscape.net.
