Category: Volunteer Spotlight
How To Do The Tree Dance
This season at Friends of Trees, we will plant our millionth tree. Our millionth tree, like all of the trees and native shrubs we’ve planted, will be planted with the power of community volunteers. We’re telling their stories! Read more here.
Volunteer crew leader Shay Snyder knows that climate action should be fun and inclusive.
When Shay’s crew finishes planting a tree, they encourage the whole crew to do a tree dance in celebration.
“The tree dance? I’m obsessed with it,” they say. “One thing I’ve learned from teaching adults is that they don’t have many chances to feel like a kid. And we’re playing in the dirt, we can feel like a kid.”
Shay teaches college success at Portland State University and believes their classroom management skills help them be a confident and engaging crew leader at Friends of Trees neighborhood tree plantings. They strive to achieve the balance of creating a fun atmosphere and accomplishing something meaningful.
“If you’re going to get up early on a Saturday morning to volunteer, it should be fun,” Shay says. “I like when people find ways to have fun doing things that aren’t necessarily supposed to be fun.”
Since Shay started leading crews in 2021, very few people have been resistant to do the tree dance. And in fact, the people who are reluctant in the beginning usually dance with the most enthusiasm by the end of the planting.
For the accomplishment side of the equation, Shay has another tradition. After the first tree gets planted, they tell their crew: there wasn’t a tree here and now there’s a tree here.
Doing something tangible was what drew Shay to Friends of Trees in 2021. That, and the fact that their middle name is Aspen, something they always bring up to crews when discussing favorite trees.
“I was feeling really stressed about climate change…Why did I say that in the past tense? I am really stressed about climate change. But it feels better to do something about it. It’s doing the thing and feeling like I’ve done the thing, and it’s finding the people who care enough to do something hard on a Saturday morning.”
Shay doesn’t think they ever planted a tree before volunteering with Friends of Trees, but didn’t let that hold them back.
“I’m definitely not a tree expert. But just because I’m not a botanist or a biologist doesn’t mean I can’t contribute. I just learned how to plant a tree. Almost anyone can dig in the dirt.”
Friends of Trees strives to create inclusive planting events. Anyone can come, regardless of their background or experience. Shay loves that planting events bring together lots of people who care about trees.
“You get to meet people you’re unlikely to meet otherwise,” they say. “There’s something so special about a group of people spending four hours together and accomplishing something. And maybe you never see them again, and that’s okay.”
For Shay, those connections are powerful, and a model for climate action that also bridges divides between people.
There are some folks that Shay does get to see again: The Friends of Trees staff.
“If you volunteer more than once, they really get to know you,” they say. “Right before the last event I attended, my old dog passed away. And the staff was so kind and caring. They are all folks who care and you can feel that.”
So much brings Shay back over and over again, including a true volunteer spirit—”It’s civic engagement that’s fun!”—that they love to see in others.
“At my first ever planting we got soaked to the bone,” they say. “And people stayed. I love that.”
Oh yeah, you want to know how to do a Tree Dance? Just plant a tree. And dance. Together.
A Million Trees, A Million Stories is brought to you by our Presenting Partner, Portland General Electric.
Every Muddy Day Is Worth It
This season at Friends of Trees, we will plant our millionth tree. Our millionth tree, like all of the trees and native shrubs we’ve planted, will be planted with the power of community volunteers. We’re telling their stories! Read more here.
Carolyn’s commitment to crew leading is inspired by a sense of community and fun
Carolyn is the type of Crew Leader who brings cookies to planting events on her own birthday. She has a keen sense of the big difference that small actions can make, and even more simply, believes in the importance of fun.
“It’s so much fun,” she says of crew leading. “Why would I want to do anything else?”
She learned about Friends of Trees in 2019, quickly became a Crew Leader and volunteers as often as she can, racking up almost 400 volunteer hours at dozens of events in the years since.
“It’s too easy to become isolated in this world,” she says. “I volunteer every weekend if I can. It’s the best way to stay active.”
Carolyn is an avid volunteer, and not just at Friends of Trees. “There are so many ways to be involved,” she says. “It’s what a community needs.”
With Friends of Trees, Carolyn especially loves leading crews at Green Space plantings, helping lead volunteers to enhance natural areas in urban parks by planting native trees and shrubs. She loves seeing the plants grow from year to year. And because she is so active, she gets to meet people, then remeet people.
“You start each event with: we don’t even know each other, but we are a community,” she says. “And it’s so exciting when you see people come back for another event. It makes me want to weep! There’s so much bad news out in the world, but then you see so many people who want to plant.”
She knows it’s her job to set the tone for how the planting is going to go, especially on a chilly, wet winter day. She knows the planting sites well and she’ll often point out established plants from a previous year and tell volunteers, people just like you planted that.
“You know that anyone who is a part of a Friends of Trees event cares about trees. And people want to help. Whether it’s muddy or hard to dig, people just want to help. They love doing it.”
“Carolyn has such a calming, supportive presence,” says Jenny, the Volunteer & Outreach Program Manager at Friends of Trees. “She gives confidence to everyone she works with.”
Carolyn remembers walking to a planting event at Gateway Green with a huge group of college students on a service trip.
“They were just thrilled to be able to do this. And they’re not even from here.”
Carolyn believes that Friends of Trees Crew Leaders have a couple things in common: enthusiasm and perseverance. Carolyn certainly has these qualities in spades. Even though she has recently been sidelined from crew leading as she recovers from a surgery, she has found other ways to volunteer her time toward event prep. And she’s eager to put the vest back on and lead crews again as soon as she can.
When asked what she would say to someone considering becoming a Crew Leader, she had a simple response: “Do it. It is just so fun.”
After a planting event, she goes home, washes her muddy clothes, and enjoys the satisfaction of what she and her crew accomplished. She sees it as her role as a Crew Leader to make sure her crew feels that same satisfaction, that they’ll later feel the pull to revisit what they planted to see how it’s grown.
Carolyn sees the long term impact, the growth of both trees and community, and she knows it all starts with people simply showing up.
“Just the fact that people come,” she says, “makes every muddy day worth it.”
A Million Trees, A Million Stories is brought to you by our Presenting Partner, Portland General Electric.
Heritage Trees Have To Start Somewhere
This season at Friends of Trees, we will plant our millionth tree. Our millionth tree, like all of the trees and native shrubs we’ve planted, will be planted with the power of community volunteers. We’re telling their stories! Read more here.
Since he was a teenager, Reggie’s deep involvement with Friends of Trees has taken many forms.
Reggie’s tree planting has always been motivated by a sense of justice. When he was a teen, a neighbor convinced one of his parents to remove mature trees in their yard, leaving it barren and exposed.
“It was traumatic to walk up to the house one day and see a crane with a crowd of neighbors watching these beautiful trees be dismantled,” Reggie says. “They had provided a lot of good.”
A couple years later in 2008, Reggie volunteered for his first Friends of Trees planting event at Taliesen Park in Beaverton after seeing a posting in the newspaper.
“I suddenly had this opportunity to plant trees in my own neighborhood,” he says. “It was exciting to make a permanent, positive difference for my immediate environment.”
It was an Arbor Day planting event, and at the end of it, Reggie was given a 1-gallon Douglas fir to take home with him and plant where he pleased.
“That small free conifer really changed things for me. I realized, I can actually plant this at home in the yard where the trees had been and now I know how.”
After that, Reggie volunteered at Friends of Trees planting events in Beaverton whenever he could. When he went to Eugene for college, he started volunteering with the Eugene Branch.
At his first event in Eugene in 2012, he remembers planting a blue oak—a species native to California that will likely do well in Oregon as the climate warms—the first ever blue oak as a street tree in Eugene.
“It was a historic moment,” Reggie says. “Where do ‘heritage trees’ start? They have to start somewhere.”
History is another huge motivator for Reggie. He has a keen sense of our place in history, looking both into the past and forward into the future.
“I grew up surrounded by large trees. Mature red maples lined my street. Those are there thanks to someone who cared enough in the 1970s. We can’t take trees for granted. Each one was only an intentional decision by someone in the past, and we get to benefit from that effort now. It’s important that we continue making those decisions in the present.”
Reggie’s passion translated into action, and a deepening involvement as he entered adulthood. During his junior year of college, Reggie became a Crew Leader and went to even more planting events. His senior year, he interned with Friends of Trees in Eugene. His first job out of college, back in the Portland area, was as a Friends of Trees outreach assistant, going door to door to encourage people to sign up to have trees planted at their homes.
“I liked talking to people, I liked being an ambassador for the work. And it was a way to get familiar with more trees and see the region through an urban forestry lens.”
In 2017, Reggie began serving what became two consecutive AmeriCorps terms with Vancouver Urban Forestry, which partners closely with Friends of Trees. He discovered a sense of community around Vancouver. Meanwhile, he grew his experience. He participated in outreach, summer inspections and neighborhood coordinating. He still participates in every Beaverton event that he can.
“All things tree-related, Reggie’s the guy,” says Mario Catani, the Friends of Trees Neighborhood Trees Specialist for Washington County. “Personally, I am super inspired by him.”
Now, Reggie is an Environmental Technician with Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services, but he still does plenty of tree planting off the clock, with Friends of Trees in Beaverton and beyond.
“Reggie deserves a statue in Beaverton for all of the tree work he’s done there,” says Mario. “From working with Friends of Trees to hosting his own grassroots Highland neighborhood plantings to leading Pedalpalooza rides about tree policy, he has shown how much he deeply cares about connecting people with trees.”
“The community aspect keeps me coming back,” Reggie says. “When it seems like society is crumbling and you’re feeling a little helpless, getting people together to plant trees is a healing experience. I have a whole network of people who I know want to help, people who care about our future.”
Mario was particularly inspired that Reggie took the lead on replanting trees at Beaverton City Park after trees fell in the 2024 ice storm, gathering volunteers to plant sequoias and ponderosa pines to reforest the park’s historic grove. “You could tell he wanted to heal the wounds left by the storm,” Mario says.
Ever since his first planting back in 2008, Reggie has watched those trees grow, and he has grown along with them, nurturing a passion for climate justice, community building, and an optimism for the future that is built on direct action. He hopes that more people are inspired to make the world a better place.
“If we don’t do it now, we’ll be letting down future generations.”
A Million Trees, A Million Stories is brought to you by our Presenting Partner, Portland General Electric.
Volunteer Spotlight: Vianey Mohr
“Trees Give Me Confidence”
Vianey Mohr on why she loves volunteering with Friends of Trees
Vianey was supposed to be an assistant crew leader at her very first planting event. As fate would have it, she would have to step into the crew leader role right away.
“I thought, OMG, how am I going to do this,” Vianey says. “But all the volunteers were so nice and supportive.”
Originally from Mexico, Vianey has lived in Salem for 12 years. She speaks English as a second language, and was worried about communicating with her crew. Between her crew leader training and the support of her crewmates, everything went great.
“Trees give me confidence. I proved to myself that I can do it,” Vianey says. “I don’t have to be scared to communicate.”
Vianey’s love of trees brought her to Friends of Trees. She has the equivalent of a bachelor’s in forestry from her education in Mexico, and she is volunteering with Friends of Trees as part of her Cooperative Work Experience.
“As an immigrant, you never know if you can continue your career,” Vianey says. “I’m so happy I am able to continue mine here.”
Vianey has stepped into a variety of roles with Friends of Trees, leading crews at events, helping at pruning workshops, even delivering trees with our staff. She’s learned the details of planning and preparation that go beyond planting trees. Still, planting is her favorite part.
“I really like the feeling of dirt on my hands,” she says. “It’s my connection to the planet.”
Vianey wants to share that connection with her family. Whenever she can, she brings her husband and children to planting events. This month, they all attended the Salmonberry Trail plant rescue.
“I bring my kids to events to show them how trees are important,” she says. “They have a good time, and that’s awesome. I want to share my love for trees with them.”
Vianey also leads Spanish-speaking crews, helping make our planting events more inclusive.
“I really like that Friends of Trees provides opportunities for the whole community,” she says. With her love of trees, care for the planet, and connection to community, Vianey truly exemplifies the spirit of Friends of Trees.
Volunteer Spotlight: hello JP!
An incredibly challenging planting season has come to a close and we are indebted to many people who went above and beyond to help make sure 21,000 trees + native shrubs were planted. We’ll be highlighting a few of these folks over the coming months, volunteers who really made a difference, despite the obstacles.
MEET JP!
JP Perrine (they/them) started volunteering in Fall 2016 after they moved to Portland, and has been a force to be reckoned with ever since. In JP’s own words:
“I’d moved from Iowa, one of the most deforested states in the country, and I’d chosen to relocate to Oregon in part because of the bounty of forest cover here. I felt so deeply appreciative to have access to so much urban canopy, and I wanted to help ensure that other folks here have access to green spaces. As a newly minted Oregonian, volunteering was also a great way to get my bearings, to meet people from all over the Portland metro area, and to learn about the many local groups involved in habitat restoration and environmental health.
“I joined as a Crew Leader because I love helping people learn and creating welcoming spaces. This year, since plantings have mostly included only FOT staff and Crew Leaders, instead of checking in with volunteers, I’ve mostly been just digging in and planting trees. It’s a very different experience, but it’s helped me be more present and in the moment, enjoying the feel of the dirt, the birdsong, the burble of nearby creeks, the occasional startled wildlife (hello, snakes!), and even sometimes the rain and swampy ground!
“One of my favorite memories was planting at Memorial Park in Wilsonville in December. We were mostly planting understory in an existing forest, and I was delighted to discover that the trees in that forest had been planted by FOT volunteers only a decade or two ago. It was inspiring to see how much change had happened in a relatively short period of time, and it helped me envision what the fields where I’ve planted would look like in years to come. And it was equally inspiring to be planting alongside people who’d put some of those first trees in the ground!”
Do you have any advice for other Crew Leaders?
“At pre-COVID plantings, one of the things I emphasized most during the Crew huddles was that every volunteer should go at their own pace and take as many breaks as they wanted or needed to. Breaks to drink water, to eat a snack, to warm up, to switch out wet gloves for dry ones, to chat with other volunteers. But this year at the first few events, without a crew to check in with, I turned into a nonstop planting machine … which was fun until my body reminded me that I have been sitting a lot more than usual during this COVID year, and that I was suddenly planting way more than I usually did! Plantings have been much more fun since I’ve reminded myself to follow my own advice: take a break, drink some water, grab a snack, find a secluded spot to take a mask-off breather, go see how the other Crew Leaders are faring, enjoy being outside on a Saturday morning.”
Planting manager, Harrison Layer, agrees, “When I think of JP, I think of someone who is dedicated to the task at hand and someone who sees through the varied scenarios that can be presented in a day (like chipping through bundles of bareroot plants on steep hillsides or planting water-loving plants in a splashy wetland—just some examples that come to mind!). I also think of JP as someone who isn’t too serious to laugh or share a story, either. Glad to work with them when I get the opportunity to do so! :^)”
Thank you, JP, for offering your insatiable energy, integrity, and wisdom. As Harrison says, volunteers and staff alike are glad to work with you whenever we get the opportunity!
Photo: That’s JP on the left, with former FOT Urban Forestry intern Alvey on the right.