Briggs & Stratton Announces Yard Smarts Boot Camp for First-Time Homeowners

MILWAUKEE, March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Homeowners who need more knowledge and experience to shape up their yards can hone their skills while doing something good at Briggs & Stratton Corporation's first-ever Yard Smarts Boot Camp.  Recruits will get their hands dirty learning yard care basics while improving a community green space at a mystery location somewhere in the continental United States.

Homeowners will be selected to attend the fun, knowledge-packed weekend Boot Camp based on how creatively they express their need to gain more lawn and yard care know-how.  Boot Camp hopefuls should submit a brief video or series of photos expressing their need for knowledge to www.YardSmartsBootCamp.com.  Visit the web site for complete rules.

Twelve "recruits" will be selected and whisked away to an undisclosed location in early fall 2010 for the Boot Camp experience.  Under the guidance of nationally known Yard Doctor Trey Rogers, Ph.D., they will learn what it takes to have a great green space at home by applying their new knowledge and skills to improve and beautify a community green space chosen from public nominations.  Anyone can suggest a community green space in need of a spruce-up at YardSmartsBootCamp.com

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In addition to the weekend Boot Camp experience, recruits will return home to new yard care equipment.  Participants will receive a new lawn mower and pressure washer, as well as a $200 gift certificate toward the purchase of shovels, rakes, loppers and other basics.

"Our research tells us there are lots of first-time homeowners and young homeowners who don't have the skills they would like to have when it comes to caring for their lawn and yard and making it look great," explains Anita Fisher, marketing communications manager at Briggs & Stratton, the largest maker of gas engines for outdoor power equipment.  "This is a fun way to share knowledge and at the same time perform a community service project that otherwise wouldn't get done."

Boot Camp hopefuls are invited to send a short video (no longer than two minutes) or photo montage (up to 4 images), along with their plea (200 words or less) for lawn and yard care help, to YardSmartsBootCamp.com.  Each month from March through July, the Yard Doctor will select five Boot Camp semi-finalists from all submissions and post them online where consumers will vote to select that month's two boot camp recruits. Two "at large" recruits will be selected from all submissions in August for a total of 12 participants. Monthly runners up will receive a $100 gift certificate towards a new lawn mower and a commemorative Boot Camp duffel bag and water bottle.

For more information on the Yard Smarts Boot Camp or to submit a community green space that could use some TLC from the Yard Doctor and Boot Camp participants, go to YardSmartsBootCamp.com.

Briggs & Stratton Corporation, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is the world's largest producer of gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment. Its wholly owned subsidiary Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group LLC is North America's number one manufacturer of portable generators and pressure washers, and is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of lawn and garden and turf care through its Simplicity®, Snapper®, Ferris® and Murray® brands. Briggs & Stratton products are designed, manufactured, marketed and serviced in over 100 countries on six continents.

SOURCE Briggs & Stratton Corporation