Schaumburg man puts his blades to work for the Hawks
Everyone who drives down a stretch of Plum Grove Road can see that Mike Ehrhardt is a Blackhawks fan.
The 58-year-old Schaumburg Public Works Department employee recently started mowing the word “Go Hawks” into his back yard lawn, which is visible on the busy Schaumburg street between Wise Road and Weathersfield Way.
“People in the neighborhood seem to enjoy it, and I get a lot of beeps from passing cars,” Ehrhardt said. “I like to do it because it gets everybody into the mood a little bit. There are a great many Hawks fans around.”
While Ehrhardt has mowed the words “Go Cubs” into his lawn for years, this is only the second time he's added “Go Hawks” to the 1.5-acre space, which includes part of a park district retention pond area (he got permission from the park district in advance). Ehrhardt also did it the last time the Hawks played for the Stanley Cup, in 2010.
Since the visible section of Ehrhardt's lawn is on a sloped hill leading into the pond, mowing his grass messages is no easy task.
“It's not perfect, but once you get the initial cutting in, it's like a stencil,” he said, adding that he maintains it by mowing the letters every five days with a low lawn mower setting.
The Hawks message is only temporary; Ehrhardt plans to keep the “Go Cubs” message mowed in the lawn until the team's season ends.
“Until I get real frustrated with (the Cubs) in the fall, then I'll let it grow out,” he said. “But I keep doing it every year.”