Friends of Trees honors local leaders at luncheon
More than a hundred people attended Friends of Trees’ May 20 Leadership Awards Luncheon, which was sponsored by longtime Friends of Trees supporter The Oregonian. OPB Oregon Field Guide producer Vince Patton announced the award winners.
This year’s award winners were: Chijo Takeda, 2010 Individual Leadership Award; Metro, 2010 Community Partner Leadership Award; and J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co., 2010 Business Leadership Award.
Takeda has supported Friends of Trees for 15 years now, donating professional photos taken at weekend tree plantings and making contributions through his web site design business, Dogpaw Studio LLC.
In addition, Takeda designed a new web site for Friends of Trees last year as a 20th anniversary gift. The web site is attractive, easy to navigate, and sustainable, with a content management system that allows Friends of Trees staff to make updates.
The 2010 Community Partner Leadership Award went to Metro. Since 1998, Metro has funded a wide range of Friends of Trees plantings and projects. In December 2009, Metro awarded Friends of Trees a $410,000 Nature in Neighborhoods capital grant for a three-year project with ODOT to plant trees along the 16.5-mile I-205 Multi-Use Path.
The grant money came from voter-approved funds from a 2006 natural areas bond measure. Metro Council President David Bragdon said of the project, “The variety of people and organizations involved is tremendous. When you put all those efforts together, you get a great result.”
Wholesale tree grower J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. received the 2010 Business Leadership Award for supporting Friends of Trees since the nonprofit was founded. Over the years, the company has donated about $100,000 in tree discounts and support from the J. Frank Schmidt Family Charitable Foundation. This year the company contributed $12,000 to the I-205 greening project.
The company’s communications director, Nancy Buley, has served on Friends of Trees’ board of directors and been a tireless advocate for both Friends of Trees and the nursery industry. This April she flew to D.C. with others from Portland to help convince all seven members of Oregon’s Congressional delegation to support legislation authorizing annual funding for urban tree planting.
–Teri Ruch