Special Thanks for Our Amazing Volunteers

By Andy Meeks

We have many favorite times of the year here at Friends of Trees, but celebrating the end of planting season is among the best. We make the first order of business giving special thanks to the hundreds of key volunteers who are absolutely crucial components of the organization. We literally would not be able to do what we do without the incredible leadership of our Neighborhood Coordinators, Crew Leaders, and the most dedicated office-based volunteers.

On Sunday, April 28, we held our annual Volunteer Awards Potluck at the Friends of Trees world headquarters in NE Portland. We hosted over 100 people in our south lot on a beautiful, sunny afternoon. We are so grateful for everyone who joined us to celebrate another very successful season of more than 80 planting and tree care events.

We presented nine different awards to 31 very deserving people and raffled off a ton of prizes. We were fortunate to have donations from Deschutes Brewery, Dragonfly Chai, The Arbor Lodge, REI and KIND Healthy Snacks. We also had an amazing variety of tasty food and drink for everyone to share, and there were games of one-handed tree planting and four-square that were popular and fun.

Here’s the list of our top award winners: (The full list can be seen HERE.)

Volunteer of the Year:  Sonny Newson
The Conan Award:  Erik Weimer
NT Crew Leader of the Year:  Mike Ablutz
GSI Crew Leader of the Year:  Steven Gray
NT Rookie of the Year:  Alex Bruyevicz
GSI Rookie of the Year:  Nate Johnson
Office Volunteer of the Year:  Jeff Timmons
The Garry Oak Award:  Russ Dillman
Neighborhood Group of the Year: Buckman, HAND, Richmond

Thank you to the thousands of individuals who volunteered with us this season! We look forward to working with you again in the 2013-14 planting season starting in October.

— Meeks is the Volunteer & Outreach Program Manager for Friends of Trees.