BUCKEYE, Ariz. – When Arizona dogs and their owners competed recently in a unique competition to support the world-famous Make-A-Wish Foundation, many of them enjoyed the nicest competition surface they’ve ever had, thanks to NewGrass®.

Now, customers can buy all or any part of the 7,500 square feet of NewGrass Fescue™ used at the three-day event at 25 percent below its retail price. And all of the proceeds will go to Wags for Wishes Arizona.

The Fescue was used to cover an important section of the competition area for the first-ever Wags for Wishes Arizona fund raiser.

Scottsdale-based NewGrass distributor STC installed the lawn for free. Wags for Wishes “rented” the expanse of Fescue at a special discounted rate of $2.99 per square foot. NewGrass Fescue™ retails for $3.99 per square foot. (This does not include installation costs, which are charged separately by authorized NewGrass installers and distributors.)

Now, NewGrass is selling the 7,500 square feet of lawn used at the event at that same discounted price of $2.99 per square foot. All of the proceeds will go to Wags for Wishes to help recoup the cost of the lawn, explained NewGrass president Greg Goehner.

“This is a win-win-win,” Goehner said. “We get to support a truly wonderful cause. The dogs got a great field to compete on. And, we hope, several new customers will benefit when they get they the used grass at such low a cost.”

The arrangement came about thanks to volunteer event director Wendy Hultsman, a local dog trainer and NewGrass® customer.

Hultsman has 6,900 square feet of NewGrass® installed in her backyard training facility.
“It’s a great lawn,” Hultsman said. “The dogs love it. It stays fresh. I wouldn’t have anything else for my yards. No dirt in the house. It looks fantastic, I can do any sport I want on it, and it’s easy to maintain!”

Specifically for Wags for Wishes, Hultsman said New Grass® provided a smooth surface for sports that require more exacting surfaces than the undressed field at Empty Acres Equestrian Center could offer.

“It proves that NewGrass® holds up to high traffic, in the flyball competition for example, and in twisting and turning events, like the Frisbee and DiscDog competitions.”

The Make–A-Wish Foundation grants wishes to terminally ill children. Wags for Wishes competitions are held throughout the country to support that mission.

The shows are unique and probably the most comprehensive dog shows anywhere. They offer entries for show quality, performance and pet quality dogs. And in addition to the usual categories of agility, competition can include disk catching, dock jumping, herding, flyball, lure coursing, obedience and terrier events.

Contact NewGrass or Synthetic Turf Company today for this limited time offer!

Elementary school principal Laurie Ocampo loved the sweeping green expanse of NewGrass™ that was installed at her school this summer, replacing the schoolyard’s 11,000 square feet of former dirt and sparse, constantly dying grass.

But Ocampo knew the true test for the synthetic grass schoolyard at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School in Casa Grande, Ariz., would be how it held up to the school’s 340 students when they returned from summer break.

“It’s great,” Ocampo said recently. “It looks so nice. It seems to be holding up well, and the kids seem to really like it.”

The 11,000-square-foot NewGrass™ installation is also helping keep the school’s hallways and classrooms clean, she said.

“Before, we always had dust and dirt coming in, just because the schoolyard was so bare,” she said.

Worse, because the terrain has high and low elevations, the kids ended up tracking mud into the school whenever it rained or if the yard was still wet after the school had watered the bare patches of natural turf that it had tried to maintain before NewGrass™.

“That’s just not a problem now,” Ocampo said. “We like it a lot.”

AVONDALE, Ariz. – To complement an interior with a waiting area that feels more like the lobby of a nice hotel, one Arizona car dealership has created an equally inviting exterior with the application of NewGrass™.

Avondale Toyota, north of Phoenix, is one of three Toyota dealerships in the Phoenix area that has been designed as part of Toyota’s “Image USA II” program. Launched last year, Image USA II is targeted to upgrade Toyota dealership exteriors and interiors. The program features a special emphasis on what the company calls customer “touch points.”

Inside, amenities may include a children’s play area in the showroom, a coffee bar and upgraded restroom facilities.

At Avondale Toyota, the dealership also needed to do something about its landscaping. The property features a long, sweeping drive leading from the street to a circular drive that flows around a hillock in front of the expansive, modern showroom. But the appeal of that inviting entryway was lost because the ground simply couldn’t support natural grass.

“We had natural turf in there, but we just couldn’t keep it looking nice,” said John Rondaux, Avondale Toyota’s director of operations. “It was always a mess and a hassle to maintain.”

Plus, Rondaux said, the company likes to display new cars on the small rise at the center of the circle drive.

“And that really did a number on the grass,” he said.

Rondaux contacted a NewGrass distributor in response to an ad on ServiceMagic, an online marketing program.

“They had this beautiful shop and showroom, a snack bar, insulated coffee mugs for customers – a dealership showroom that is breathtaking and beautiful – and the first thing you saw when you drove up was this horrible, dead, nasty lawn,” said Chris Harlien, operations director for STC (Synthetic Turf Company), a NewGrass distributor in nearby Scottsdale.,

“John said to me, ‘That’s why we want to go with synthetic lawn,’ and I assured him I could make the front of their dealership look as nice as the inside.”

“We wanted the lawn, but without the constant hassle of a lawn,” Rondaux said. “And it did look pretty bad before.”

The installation required nearly 3,000 square feet of NewGrass Fescue in one area along the expansive drive and on both ends of the drive’s circle. The installation was done in one day, including removing existing turf and using premium infill of rubber compost, Harlien said.

“We look at that as a showpiece,” he said.

Rondaux is equally impressed with the results.

“It looks great, the installation went smoothly, it’s all good,” he said. “It looks just like they said it would.”

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - After years of saying no to artificial grass, a north Scottsdale community decided that one local company has a product that is enough like the real thing to be allowed to grace its front yards.

Scottsdale Ranch, an upscale community of 4,000 homes, amended its covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs) to allow residents to install NewGrass™ synthetic grass products from Scottsdale-based NewGrass, Inc.

For years, Scottsdale Ranch, like many other communities, argued that artificial grasses look too fake and would hurt property values.

“Scottsdale Ranch has homes that are beautifully landscaped, and the community wouldn’t have changed its CC&Rs to allow NewGrass if our products weren’t as natural-looking as the real thing,” said Trevor Brooks, NewGrass Executive VP, Marketing.

The approval of NewGrass at Scottsdale Ranch comes as affluent communities nationwide continue to debate whether to allow artificial grasses in their front yards.

Over the years, longtime resident Gene Galinski has seen artificial grasses that looked too much like plastic … and didn’t get the community’s approval.

“NewGrass is the first product we’ve seen that provides the appearance of a well-manicured lawn,” Galinski said.

The ongoing debate goes beyond landscape aesthetics, however. Particularly in the arid Southwest, the argument also touches on water conservation and the simple freedom from maintenance and care that a synthetic lawn offers.

More than 50% of the average homeowner’s water bill goes towards maintaining their lawn, according to the American Water Works Association.