Haiti's Resilience Rewarded with 9-11 Survivor Tree

You'll see a small new tree planted by Haiti's Embassy at 2311 Massachusetts Avenue this spring. The tree will be just a sapling about 4 feet tall. Not a lot of branches nor leaves.

This little Callery pear may manage a few white blooms, briefly.  But if not now, in future years its white cloud of blossoms will herald the start of renewal up and down our Grand Avenue.

The tree's parent was discovered in the wreckage of the World Trade Center in October 2001. Rescuers saw "lifeless limbs, snapped roots, and blackened trunk." It was nursed back to health (after another disaster) and replanted at Ground Zero in December 2010.  At right is this Survivor Tree last spring, in full bloom. It is visited reverentially by millions of people now. 

Haiti too has had more than its fair share of disasters.  Its eleven million people have shown resilience despite gnarls of problems with infrastructure, environment,  politics, disease and misdirected aid.

Since 2012 Haiti's ambassador to the US, Paul Altidor, has worked to disentangle aid issues. He has tirelessly put forth an alternative story about the intelligence, hard work, artistry and dignity of Haitian people. His Embassy has opened its doors to the Haitian diaspora and general public, who come for Haitian art shows, cooking classes, crafts and music. Busboys & Poets hosts open-mike discussions about the country.

(Now the Embassy has a hotline to help Haitian deportees clarify their status. The charge that Haiti is not a good country is being refuted by the Ambassador and many in the US public.)

Haiti's struggle to recover from the 2010 earthquake, the largest natural disaster in history, was recognized last fall when the National 9-11 Memorial & Museum awarded a seedling of Pyrus calleryana from the 9-11 Survivor Tree.   Seedlings are awarded to communities "facing and overcoming tragedy" says the award letter from chair Alice Greenwald. 

Just twelve Survivor Tree Tree seedlings have been awarded since 2013, such as to Gulfport, Miss. (Katrina in 2005) and Newton, Conn. (Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012).

Restore Mass Ave has worked with the Embassy of Haiti on green restoration projects for years. It was one of the first foreign missions to help us water city street trees, for example. The Embassy hosted our 10th anniversary in May 2017 as well.

We are glad to assist the Embassy of Haiti with planting and protecting the Survivor Tree seedling when it arrives in early spring. Stay tuned!