My husband is passionate about trees. He loves trees. He believes in their many benefits, such as cleaning the air and providing oxygen, conserving energy and saving water, preventing soil erosion and water pollution, providing shade and food and having healing properties. He has made learning about, researching and working with trees his life's work. He's been called "The Keeper of the Trees" and will happily tell you that his purpose in life is to educate people on the benefits of trees and to protect trees.
One of Jason's goals in life is to plant 1,000 trees. He is well on his way there (he only came up with this goal a few years ago, so he may have to up the ante). Jason volunteers on our local Shade Tree Commission. When he learned of an opportunity to procure 75 trees for our town to plant to replace some of the trees lost in Hurricane Sandy, he filled out the paperwork and made the necessary arrangements. He dotted his i's and crossed his t's. He worked for weeks to organize an event where townspeople would come out and volunteer to plant the trees.
This weekend, Earth Day, a group of about thirty volunteers, gathered in our local park to plant the trees.
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| Jason gave a "Thank you for coming...trees are so important" spiel |
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| Talking about how to plant trees and showing the different kinds of trees to be planted. |
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| Talking about root structure and what to look for and do with tree roots when planting |
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| Talking about depth and width of the hole to plant in. |
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| How to fan out the roots properly. |
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| Where ever there is a white flag or an orange flag, a tree is to be planted (white and orange signified which kind to plant). |
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| 75 trees were planted on Earth Day |
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| Friends help friends plant trees. |
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| Maybe someday they will bring their grandchildren to this park and say, "I planted that tree." |
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| Good friends and trees are blessings. |
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| Explaining something. |
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| checking holes and soil conditions |
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| Having fun |
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| Working together |
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| Watering them in |
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| Volunteerism Rocks |
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| Learning to be part of something bigger than themselves. |
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| Working with the homeschool neighbor dad. |
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| My awesome friend came out to help. |
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Digging holes, planting trees.
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Jason, I am so proud of you and all you have accomplished, but I really appreciate the example you set for our family of giving of your time, talents and abilities and volunteering for various organizations. I am inspired by your passion for trees--even if I don't always share it. I admire how you share your views and educate people. I love how you created this opportunity for people, for our town and for our girls and their friends to share in something bigger than ourselves, something that will be here long after we are gone. I love you.
