Penn College Alumni Go to 'Extreme' to Help Family
Published 07.30.2010
A business co-owned by two Pennsylvania College of Technology graduates will help install the landscape for an "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" project under way in Berks County.
On Tuesday, volunteers from Nature's Accents Landscape Services Inc. plan to work a very long day: In partnership with other Pennsylvania landscapers, they will have 24 hours to complete all of the landscaping needed at the Tilden Township job site.
Due to the location of the build, using Nature's Accents' Hamburg headquarters for staging plants also seemed to be a perfect fit. Hundreds of plants are being delivered and cared for as Trisha Urban is surprised with the makeover at the family's 18th-century farmhouse. Urban's husband, Andrew, died in February 2009, nearly nine hours before she gave birth to the couple's first child, Cora.
"We are all excited and honored to be a part of the transformation," said co-owner and Penn College alumnus Travis Breininger. "It is amazing to think everything that will be happening in such a short amount of time. It is nice to be able to do something special for a deserving family that lives so close to home."
The Emmy Award-winning reality program, now entering its eighth season, airs from 8-9 p.m. Sundays on ABC. The Urban episode is expected to be broadcast in September.
Nature's Accents crew members include Anthony Moyer, Strausstown, a 2007 graduate of Penn College's landscape/nursey technology major; Corey Girard, Bernville; Karen Seitzinger, Hamburg; and Tyler Eckert, Pine Grove.
Co-owners Breininger and Justin Bentz are 2001 graduates in landscape/nursery technology (now ornamental horticulture). Shortly after graduation, they started Nature's Accents Landscape Services Inc., which serves clients throughout Berks, Schuylkill and surrounding counties. A professional landscape service company, it offers award-winning landscape design/installation and property maintenance to residential and commercial clients.
The firm's involvement with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" isn't the first Penn College connection to the show. In November 2008, School of Construction and Design Technologies representatives worked on a new house for the Matthew Drumm family in Franklin County.