Those looking for a cost-effective way to spruce up their yards this spring can stop by the National Cancer Institute at Frederick Green Team’s booth during the Spring Research Festival on May 7 and 8. Pick up a free plant, donate overgrown plants from your yard, or swap for a new plant. Everyone is invited to participate in the swap, whether you have plants to donate or not.

What started out as a way for Howard Young, Ph.D., to thin out his garden last fall turned into the NCI at Frederick Green Team’s Plant Swap. The group held its Fall Plant Swap on October 24, encouraging all members of the Fort Detrick community to pick up a free plant or swap a plant of theirs for another. “Those who love to garden introduce others to the joy of gardening,” said Dolores Winterstein, a member of the Green Team and the coordinator of the Fall Plant Swap.

The NCI at Frederick Green Team received a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Green Champion Award honorable mention in June for the team’s plant swap initiative, begun in October 2012. “The Green Team has been doing a great job this past year, and it is wonderful that their efforts have been recognized by the HHS through the Green Champion Awards,” said Craig Reynolds, Ph.D., director of the NCI Office of Scientific Operations (OSO).

This past October, you may have seen several members of the Green Team standing in front of Building 549 giving out free plants or offering to take extra plants off your hands—this was the first Green Team Fall Plant Swap.

Melissa Porter, who recently joined the staff of Craig Reynolds, Ph.D., director, Office of Scientific Operations, as administrative manager, has stepped forward to lead the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNL) Green Team in its efforts to promote a “green” work environment. “I am excited to lead the FNL Green Team and have been impressed by the enthusiasm and commitment of the FNL Green Team,” Porter said.