Wrangling the masses at University of Portland

Every season Friends of Trees has the pleasure of working with University of Portland and their Campus Volunteer Coordinator (CVC), who recruits students to plant and teach others to plant trees in Portland neighborhoods. We had a blast this season working with the current CVC, Alina, whose passion for planting trees and commitment to getting students connected leaves us inspired! Read Alina’s recap of Crew Leading, wrangling students on early mornings, and the cool partnership between FOT and UP, below!

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Guest post by Alina Harwood

It’s 7am and I crawl out of bed. It’s a Saturday morning. All of my friends are still asleep after a long week of classes. I put on my green shirt, my name tag, and toughest boots. I grab a cheese stick and my clip board and head out. When I get to campus, I pick up a vehicle provided by the university, and drive to the campus pub and student hang out.  

It’s now 7:55am, and I have 11 people ready to go out and volunteer with Friends of Trees. We arrive at the staging site, and everyone gets checked in.

It’s 8:30am and all of my volunteers are happily eating donuts and waiting for what’s next.

Being the Campus Volunteer Coordinator for the University of Portland has been quite the growing experience for me. This position has allowed for growth in my time management skills and perfecting the email and recruitment process for volunteers. I have gained a more commanding voice and my confidence in leading has
increased exponentially due to both being a Crew Leader for Friends of Trees as well as a volunteer organizer. My organizational skills have definitely been tested in preparation for the planting in the University of Portland area.

I was tasked with bringing out as many purple shirts (UP’s school color) as I could. I enlisted the help of the Service and Justice Coordinators in the dorms as well my Crew Leaders and Assistant Crew Leaders to help boost our volunteer numbers and to reach out to those unfamiliar with Friends of Trees. I was able to bring out 63 volunteers, and many other UP students came on their own to the planting. The Purple Pride was at an all-time high that day.

Other highlights from the year I’ve held this position include: On my first planting, I only brought 5 people out, including myself, to a Green Space planting. At my final planting of the season, I was able to bring about 20 people out. I recruited volunteers for 8 plantings throughout the school year. We totaled over 800 volunteering hours. UP also added 9 assistant crew leaders to the ranks of Friends of Trees.

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All of us at Friends of Trees extend our gratitude and high fives to Alina for all of her hard work this planting season!