Planting For Our Future -
Planting for Our Future - By Mike Elsey
It was an early morning in February 2019, in the basement of Aris Diner where the Rotary Club of Georgetown hosted their weekly meetings. As we discussed projects for the upcoming year. It was in-between sips of coffee, I, Mike Elsey, said “We should do something big for 2020, it will be our 65th Anniversary in Georgetown… we should try to find a way to plant 2,020 trees”. With some time, the idea took shape, that in Spring of 2020, the Rotary Club of Georgetown, would host a community tree planting event, looking for community members of all ages, to come together and plant a tree.
With a close partnership and guidance from The Town of Halton Hills, and the Credit Valley Conservation we identified two ideal locations to plant along the Hungry Hallow Trail. They also helped us select trees and shrubs that would flourish and have the best environmental impact around the trail. Once we had the site and tree selected, we began our fundraising drive and with the help of the Town of Halton Hills Community Sustainability Grant, The TD Friends of the Environment Grant and an anonymous private donor we secured the funds needed to make our goal a reality. It was February 2020, locations had been picked, funding had been found, and I was ecstatic to be able to personally hand-deliver the cheque to Sheridan Nurseries to purchase 2,020 tree’s to plant for spring!
Spring did not go as planned. As the province, the country and the world learned and reacted to COVID-19, we had to pivot and adjust to the challenge on hand. As the months progressed the idea of having a large community event, was diminishing. We realized that our goal of bringing the community together to plant for our future had to be done under new guidelines and ensuring that everyone’s health and safety in top of mind. We worked tirelessly with our partners reimagining the initiative throughout the spring and early summer and determined that our best window of opportunity to plant would be in early fall.
By mid-September, we found a small window of time, where the restrictions were lifting, and if we limited our group's sizes and follow all social distancing guidelines we could plant. So, with less than 21 days before the event, we got to work!
The plan for the day was to have four shifts asking each volunteer to be at least 16 years of age and willing to plant up to 20 trees. After creating the event online, a few well-placed promotions, our event was “sold out” and accepting a wait list for volunteers within 36 hours. Our club and I were thrilled by the response. Residents of Georgetown really came together for this initiative.
On October 3rd, 2020 as the frost on the grass began to melt and the sun rose, two Sheridan Nursey Trucks, 1 backing into West Branch Park and the other on Meltcalf Cres, delivered our 2,020 trees to be planted. We all went to task and began planting all throughout the day and watched as the community came together with such passion and enthusiasm. We witnessed some fun challenges between families and groups, (like the family who wanted to plant 100 trees per member!) and strangers build relationships over a common goal to improve their community. We even had neighbours meet for the first time.
From sun-up to sun-down we succeeded in planting over 1800 trees and as the day wound down, all the volunteers were exhausted, proud of their achievement, and were ready to go home. We as a club were determined to push, that we could plant the remaining trees and achieve our goal. Throughout the week, we had members of the community and the club, show up and plant them, in fact we even had one of our club members, plant 15 trees every morning.
At the end of the week with just under 100 trees remaining and the sites at capacity we reached out to the community one more, but this time, our ask was a little different. We asked that community members take a tree and plant it in their yard, with the conditions that it had to be in the ground that weekend. Over 24 hours, I received dozens of messages of members of the community asking for trees for backyards, farms and more. On October 12th, 2020 the final tree of the 2,020 trees was planted in Halton Hills.
This initiative will always be cherished and remembered by myself and my fellow Rotarians. It would not have been possible without the support of The Town of Halton Hills, The Credit Valley Conservation, Willow Park Ecology Centre, TD Friends of the Environment, and most importantly the residents of Halton Hills.