Crew Leaders enjoy ‘Thank You’ potluck

By Andy Meeks

Last Sunday Friends of Trees hosted a picnic for approximately 60 of its most active volunteers, including first-time crew leaders and those who have been working with Friends of Trees since our inception. All enjoyed a fun afternoon of excellent food, local beer, and a few very special volunteer awards.

While we provided the beverages, it was up to the volunteers to bring the food. And bring it they did, with amazing contributions like homemade bread, lasagna, spring rolls, pizza, mashed potatoes, egg sandwiches, cookies and salads of all sorts, and more dessert options than necessary.

Friends of Trees strives to be a fun organization for volunteers. Yes, we love to plant trees and, yes, the weather can sometimes be wet and cold, but we also love to have fun. The weather contributed to the day again by delaying the rain until festivities wrapped up. It was a perfect way to put the finishing touches on a very successful planting season.

Irek Wielgosz was honored as the Volunteer of The Year for being one of the most prolific crew leaders, a neighborhood coordinator, and a go-to guy when extra help was needed throughout the year. In fact, he volunteered more than 140 hours since last September. For a complete list of this season’s award winners, please check out our new Volunteer Awards web page.

Thanks to all of our volunteers for making this season such a success! We’re already looking forward to next season. If you can’t wait until the fall to volunteer, we are still recruiting summer inspectors, neighborhood coordinators and summer festival volunteers.

Please contact Greg (ext. 12) or Andy (ext. 24) at 503-282-8846 in the Volunteer & Outreach program for more information on how to get involved.

Meeks is the Volunteer and Outreach Specialist at Friends of Trees