Inspiring stories from our December Gift Trees planting

By Chelsea Schuyler

“I became a teacher to inspire and help children become the best persons they can be academically and personally.”
–Kathryn LePore

Friends of Trees held its semiannual Gift Trees Planting at the Collins Sanctuary in Forest Park on December 12. Six hundred trees and shrubs were planted by volunteers who were invited if they bought or gave a tree in commemoration of a loved one or event.

I’d like to highlight two of these volunteers’ stories here.

Kathryn LePore and Karen Waibel are both teachers at Tualatin Elementary. For eight years now this school has offered an after-school program called the Tualatin Elementary Arts Foundation (TEAF), where kids can learn anything from hip hop dance to science, from cooking to sports. Nearly half of the school children qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, which also qualifies them for free or reduced-price TEAF classes.

But offering arts and culture enrichment classes for kids whose families can’t afford them has its challenges. The school struggles every year to come up with money to pay for the costs of the instructors, a before-class snack, and a bus ride home. All financial support comes entirely from the ground up, and the program survives on donations and local fundraising. The last two years have been tight, and it wasn’t always clear where the program would get next year’s money.

So this summer Kathryn applied for a grant through the Pepsi Refresh Project, which awards thousands of dollars each month to various community ‘ideas.’ Each idea is voted on nationwide by the public, and any idea in the top ten receives the prize. If the idea stays in the top 100, people can vote for it again the next month.

“We started in July at 96,” Kathryn recalled. “In August we ended up at 54, September we ended up at 15, and October we ended up at 6—and we made the grant.” In this case, a whopping $25,000!

Kathryn received the Gift Tree as a congratulations from Friends of Trees staff member Emma Gray, whose daughter is in Kathryn’s fourth grade class at Tualatin Elementary and who also helped with the Pepsi Refresh Project.

On December 12, Kathryn planted a Western Hemlock. As she and Karen secured the tree in the ground, Karen commended Kathryn: “It was a gift to honor her monumental effort. Even though a lot of people were working on this, Kathryn was the driving force behind getting this grant. She ate and slept it.”

Karen came both to celebrate the grant earned by her coworker and to honor the passing of her 14-year-old Australian Shepherd, Dodger.

“Dodger was active and healthy all the way up to the end. Now he’ll be up here in the Collins Sanctuary where he’ll be very happy.”

It can be hard to find closure when a family pet dies. I met a few families finding comfort by planting a tree in memoriam while helping restore the beautiful Collins Sanctuary.

If you would like to purchase a tree for yourself or someone close to you, visit Friends of Trees’ Gift Trees page or contact Emma Gray at 503-282-8846 ext. 31. You will be invited to come and plant the tree yourself next March if you so choose.