AmeriCorps volunteers dig in to help our trees

Our volunteers came from Kansas, Alabama, California - and Greece! Four young Americans with AmeriCorps helped trees by the church on 22nd Street just off Mass Ave.  "It was wonderful to understand how important the trees are to a community," said organizer Sarah Chandler from Manhattan, Kansas.

 Our team included Christina Georgiou of the Embassy of Greece, which is nearby at 2217 Mass. In 2010 this embassy received trees in the planting at which RMA and Casey Trees installed 13 trees around the Church of the Pilgrims.  At our August 30 Treekeeper meetup, Christina said she loved learning about tree care and the amazing US government program, AmeriCorps.  (Formerly known as Vista, AmeriCorps started in 1993. In twenty years 700,000 participants have worked to improve local communities, giving one billion hours of service.)

Who's the fellow above on right?  He is RMA star Treekeeper Robert Thomason. Robert is a Mass Ave resident and a terrific teacher to those who want to learn how to grow bigger city trees. 

Below is a scene from our planting of these trees in October 2010. You can view this and our other six plantings with Casey Trees on our new website http://restoremassave.org/events-archive/.

In the photo church parishioners and Casey Trees volunteers are planting London plane trees,  American hornbeams and dogwoods on this lawn, which 25,000 commuters pass daily. On the south and west yards of the church, the trees we planted are: sweet gum, bald cypress, swamp oak and catalpa.   For other great RMA news, look below this photo!

For  Who We Are, Where We Work and Tree Care how-tos , visit our new web site RestoreMassAve.org. The site was generously provided by Gill Fishman Design of Cambridge, MA.

                                                                                                      --  Deborah Shapley