Come to our Volunteer Appreciation Picnic!
By Andy Meeks
With the temperatures rising into the 90s these past few days, it’s hard to believe that summer is almost over. But it’s true – and that means that our planting season is just around the corner. In less than three weeks – on Saturday, October 5th – we’ll be holding our first of 75 public tree care and planting events of the 2013-2014 planting season.
In order to get ready for the season, and to bid summer a fond farewell, we’re holding our annual Volunteer Appreciation Picnic next Saturday, September 21st – the last day of summer – to say THANK YOU to everyone who helps make our organization so successful.
No matter how often you’ve worked with us – or even if you’ve never volunteered and are curious about what it is we do – we’d love to have you join us at Overlook Park between 12:00 pm and 3:00 pm for a tasty picnic lunch from Nawitka Catering. We’ll also have lawn games and all sorts of raffle prizes. Friends and family are always welcome, too, so please bring them with you.
Over the past 24 years, Friends of Trees staff and – most importantly – tens of thousands of volunteers – have planted almost 500,000 trees in the Portland-Vancouver and Eugene-Springfield metro. In the 2012-13 planting season, 4,466 individuals volunteered 37,250 hours of their time to help with all aspects of our operations—from planning to planting to everything in between. That’s the equivalent of more than 18 full-time staff members – almost doubling the Friends of Trees staff. We simply couldn’t do what we do without our volunteers!
This season will be an exciting one for us as we’ll be expanding our work in Eugene, expanding into Salem, as well as planting in Forest Grove and Troutdale. Please click HERE for a link to our online calendar showing all 75 planting events planned in the Portland-Vancouver area for this season. Also, here is the link to our Eugene-Springfield calendar.
We hope you can join us for the afternoon—even for an hour—to celebrate our past achievements and get excited for the season to come. We look forward to working with you again this season!
— Andy is the Volunteer & Outreach Manager for Friends of Trees