Our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Harvey L. Massey was recently presented with a very special award from Florida Citrus Sports – the Howard Palmer Award. This honor is given annually to a member of the community who, without regard for personal recognition, has maintained a long and active relationship with Florida Citrus Sports, continuously supporting and contributing to the success of the organization. This award is the organization’s highest service honor and recognizes a “lifetime” of service to Florida Citrus Sports. Congratulations Mr. Massey!

Mr. Massey has been involved with Florida Citrus Sports for nearly 25 years and has held various positions within the organization such as president (1998-99) and chairman (1999-2000). He currently serves as president of the Florida Citrus Sports Foundation, while his son Tony, President and Chief Operating Officer of Massey Services, presently serves on the Florida Citrus Sports Executive Committee.

For more information on Florida Citrus Sports, visit fcsports.com.

Massey Services has been committed to providing environmentally responsible services for over 20 years and constantly works to produce new initiatives to protect the environment. Being green is part of Massey’s past…and future.

Here are five simple things you can do at home to go green- while also saving money: 

1. Conserve Energy – turn off lights, televisions, radios, etc. when not in use or when leaving a room.
2. Conserve Water – turn off the water when brushing teeth and try to take shorter showers. Inspect your irrigation system frequently to ensure sprinkler heads are intact and not just gushing water.
3. Recycle – items that can be recycled include aluminum cans, glass jars and bottles, plastic soda bottles, plastic milk jugs, newspapers and magazines, junk mail, office/printer paper, plastic grocery bags and cardboard.
4. Think Before You Buy – make a conscious effort to purchase things that will last. This practice reduces the number of items that quickly break and end up in the trash.
5. Reduce – limit the amount of pre-packaged and disposable products you use. Try buying everyone in the family a reusable water bottle instead of using bottled water, soda and juice or buy snack items in bulk and package them in small reusable containers.  

We hope that your family will adopt these simple practices to help conserve our natural resources, save money and keep our planet clean.

It might seem odd that I’m posting about Mother’s Day on Cinco de Mayo but, let’s face it, if you aren’t ready for Cinco de Mayo today, a blog post from me isn’t going to help. Now on to Moms…

Mother’s Day is a special day when you celebrate your mom and everything she’s done for you over the years. If your mom is anything like mine then that includes driving to dance lessons, soccer practice, watching plays, baking cakes for every holiday and every birthday and just plain being the person who can always pick you up when you’re a little down. If that’s not something to celebrate – I don’t know what is!

Mother’s Day gives us the chance to treat our moms to something special- a gift, a meal, whatever you think your mom would enjoy and probably wouldn’t do for herself. The older you get ,the “better” you can celebrate the day. I remember when I was little and my teachers would have us cut out construction paper cards for our moms. I’m not saying she didn’t appreciate the construction paper cards and the hard work that it took my little fingers to make them, but I think she liked the comforter set I got her last year much better.

I hope my cake turns out as pretty as this one!

In addition to gifts, in my family we always have a special meal. Now, cooking is NOT my area of expertise – I leave that up to someone else. I do, however, LOVE baking. Meaning, I usually end up bringing the dessert! And you know, on special occasions, you NEED desert! I’ve been wanting to make a coconut cake for quite some time and it seems that Mother’s Day is the perfect time to buckle down and make it. I found this delicious recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart and I just had to share!

If you need some more ideas, you can go here and get some more recipes as well as ideas for some fun Mother’s Day crafts!

No matter what you do this Sunday, I hope that everyone has a safe, happy and healthy Mother’s Day – from our family, to yours.

Massey Services truly believes in giving back to the local communities that we serve. Today team members went casual for a good cause. All who wanted to wear their favorite pair of jeans to work were encouraged to donate a few bucks to Junior Achievement. We ended up raising over $350 in just ONE DAY! Great job team!

JA is dedicated to educating students on workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs. And it’s an organization that we are proud to cheer on - in more ways than one. Massey supports JA not only through Jeans Days, but also with an annual Bowl-a-Thon for Team Members and volunteer programs that utilize Massey’s finest to teach students in local schools through experiential, hands-on programs.

For more information about JA and how you can get involved, visit http://www.ja.org

Bob Belmont, Massey’s Training & Technical Director and a Board Certified Entomologist, recently walked the grounds of the Central Florida Zoo with Sandi Linn, the Zoo’s Director of Education, scoping out the best spot to place a special insect trap. In partnership with the Zoo, Massey will soon begin an insect biodiversity study that will hopefully lead to a complete biodiversity study of the entire zoo grounds.

Massey’s eco-friendly insect trap (similar to the one on the right that Bob has behind his own moth lab in Sanford, Fla.) will randomly attract night-flying insects to a walk-in screened cage. The special trap allows for the collection of a few bugs and the release of other insects during the day. Massey will be teaching interested Zoo employees how to run the trap, collect the samples, and then preserve and label the specimens to be of scientific value. Various other trapping methods will also be utilized throughout the year.

The Zoo will learn a great deal from this study about their local insect fauna and will begin to better understand insects, their food plants and adult flight periods. The published data will also likely spur similar studies and attract local and out-of-state scientists to the location.

Thanks Bob! We look forward to hearing more about this study as it progresses.

This weekend (April 9^th thru 11^th) is the perfect time to spring into gear and get a free, no-obligation inspection for Pest Prevention, Termite Protection, GreenUP Landscape Services (including renovation for freeze-damaged landscapes) and Irrigation Maintenance and save big!

There is no obligation to have one of our trained inspectors come to your home and provide you with a free home and lawn inspection. And to make the deal even sweeter, we are offering some AMAZING SAVINGS- this weekend only!

If you are interested in purchasing one of our great services – now is the time! Spring is here and these savings only happen once a year.

To schedule your free inspection for this weekend, click here or call us at 1-888-2MASSEY (262-7739) today!

Please share this exciting news with your co-workers, family, friends and neighbors that may be interested. Existing customers can take advantage of our Pass It On referral program and earn a Publix gift card for yourself AND every new Massey customer that you refer!

Jeff Buhler

You may remember our post a couple weeks ago about Ed Dougherty being promoted to Executive Vice President Consumer Services. Well, we’ve had a few more promotions that we just had to announce!

Jeff Buhler has been promoted to Executive Vice President of Landscape Services! Jeff was previously the Vice President of Operations at Middleton Lawn & Pest Control. We are very excited to welcome Jeff to Massey and look forward to the leadership that he will bring to our Landscape Services Division!

Paul Giordano

Paul Giordano has been promoted to Vice President of the PrevenTech Commercial Services Division. Paul was previously the Divisional Manager of our PrevenTech Commercial Services Division. We are confident he will keep providing outstanding service to our customers and strong leadership to our team!

Mike Swanson

Mike Swanson and Greg Kopplow have both been promoted to Regional Managers of our GreenUP East and GreenUP West Divisions, respectively. Greg and Mike were both Regional Managers at Middleton Lawn & Pest Control before joining the Massey Services family. Both bring extensive experience and expertise, and we’re lucky to have them on the team!

Greg Kopplow

We’re just so proud of our team that we couldn’t keep this information quiet! Please join us in congratulating them.

I don’t know about you, but I am more excited about the arrival of Spring this year than ever before. And though I personally suffered by losing my precious one hour of sleep last weekend when the time changed, I am loving the extra sunlight every evening.

 After enduring the freezing temperatures of January and February, I am chomping at the bit to spend some quality time outside with my family. I’m looking forward to weekend barbeques, walks at the park, planting spring flowers and tomato plants, hitting the beach and getting the pool ready for summer. One of my favorite annual traditions that pops up every year is a night out with my gal pals at the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra’s Concert at the Springs. If you live in the Orlando area and have never attended this, you are missing out!

 Another special springtime tradition in my family (started by my super-fun dad) is making our own bubble mixture and getting outside for the simple pleasure of just blowing some bubbles. Kids love bubbles and here’s a site with a simple recipe to get your bubble party started, as well as links to some other fun Spring crafts, games and activities for your family.

 Enjoy your Spring!!

Last month, we reached another milestone in our company history – our 25th Anniversary! Harvey L. Massey purchased Walker Chemical & Exterminating on February 20, 1985 and ironically, we were able to celebrate on that very same day 25 years later at our Annual Awards Banquet, where we honored our top team members of the previous year.

In planning for this celebration, we pulled out old photographs and interviewed several team members that have been here since the beginning! We heard some amazing stories and saw some great pictures – some of them were hysterical but all of them had a great story behind them.

Moving forward, I can’t wait to see what the next 25 years brings to our company! Happy Anniversary Massey Services!

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Ed Dougherty to Executive Vice President of Consumer Services for Massey Services. In this role, Ed will oversee all residential Service Center operations.

Ed has been a pest management professional for approximately 26 years, and he has worked for Massey Services for approximately 18 years. Prior to assuming his new position, Ed has served as the Vice President and Division Manager for Massey Services’ GreenUP Division as well as Vice President and Regional Manager of the Central Florida and Georgia regions.

“Ed has consistently demonstrated his commitment to service excellence and the growth of our company,” said Tony Massey. “His contributions within Massey Services span all aspects of our company, from residential pest prevention to commercial service to lawn care and irrigation.”

Ed began his career in the pest management industry after he received his B.B.A. in Marketing from Eastern Michigan University in 1984. He completed the Harvard Business School OPM Key Executives Program in 2004. He remains involved in the Central Florida community through commitment to Junior Achievement, Leadership Orlando and Florida Citrus Sports.