Custom Thermoformer Donates Planting Pots and Trays for Green Classroom Initiative

    CLEARWATER, MN, March 13, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- T.O. Plastics, which thermoforms a wide range of custom and proprietary products, has donated 1,800 square pots and 90 matching carry trays to Peace by Peace, a Florida-based plant nursery and peace movement that supplies indoor air-purifying plants to school students.

"It's for a great cause," T.O. Plastics Marketing Coordinator Amber Laudenbach said. "We're always looking for ways to give back to the community, and this is the perfect way to help."

Through its Green Classroom Initiative, Peace by Peace works to reconnect students with nature and teach them about caring for plants. Other initiative goals include decreasing toxins and increasing oxygen in classroom air to help students perform better.

"T.O.'s donation to Peace by Peace's Green Classroom Initiative improves the quality of our plant gifts to students, and we greatly appreciate their contribution," said Garrett Collins, who founded Peace by Peace with his brother Russell.

"In the past, we have organized with local nurseries to recycle their pots," Garrett Collins said. "This worked well for us, but now that T.O. is our partner, our gifts to the schools look even better."

Peace by Peace has provided plants, propagation demonstrations and educational presentations during 23 visits to 15 schools in Florida and Louisiana. It also helps build community, church and school gardens throughout the region.

The first set of T.O. Plastics' square pots went to 15 students in Christina Bise's kindergarten class at Discovery Elementary School in Deltona, FL, on March 8. "The students were very excited to have their own organic indoor air purifying plants to take care of and learn from," Collins said.

"One student said he wanted to grow up to be like us and to plant the Earth," Collins added. "We love influencing the next generation and improving their lives. We hope they all go on to do great things in the community and make the world a better place for everyone."

Burpee Seeds has contributed seed packets to the initiative in the past, but T.O. Plastics is the only pot and tray manufacturer to donate, he said.

Peace by Peace and T.O. Plastics discovered each other in a decidedly modern fashion. "They found us on Facebook and sent a private message to our company," Laudenbach said. Although the group's Orange City, FL, headquarters is more than 1,500 miles away from the manufacturer's offices in Minnesota, T.O. Plastics was glad to contribute to the initiative.

"It's nice to be able to reach out nationwide, because we are providing product nationwide," Laudenbach said. Besides assisting groups in the local Clearwater area, T.O. Plastics also has donated pots to the Growing Center, a non-profit horticultural therapy center in Frederick, PA.

About T.O. Plastics
Founded in 1948, the company got its start as a manufacturer of thermoformed refrigerator parts for the company known today as Frigidaire. Today, T.O. Plastics offers custom thermoformed products and packaging from plants in Otsego and Clearwater, Minn., to customers in the medical device, consumer, electronics, industrial and recreational industries, among others, and produces its own line of proprietary plant trays and containers. The company offers full-service engineering design, tooling, custom sheet extrusion and thermoforming capabilities.

For more information about T.O. Plastics, contact: Amber Laudenbach by phone at (320) 558-5620 or via email at [email protected].

For more information about Peace by Peace, visit their website or GoFundMe page or contact the Collins brothers by email.

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