The document shares heartfelt personal stories from volunteers involved with Friends of Trees, highlighting memorable planting experiences and the joy of community engagement. Contributors recount moments of inspiration, fun, and camaraderie, often detailing their interactions and unique circumstances during tree planting events. Many emphasize the lasting impact on their families and communities, fostering a deep connection to nature and the planting efforts.

1. Your Friends of Trees Stories

2. I loved planning and planting the trees at 7th and SE Morrison. The most memorable thing was how beautiful the Friends of Trees staff and volunteers are, both their love of the earth and their good hearts. I found the experience very inspiring. Thank you for all you do. - Sheila Baraga

3. My dragonboat team once participated in a planting at Willamette Park. We paddled to and from the park for the event. Later we won the sustainability award from the Alcan dragonboat festival for doing it . - Elisabeth Flaum

4. My very first volunteer day was way down in Sherwood (I live in NOPO), and it snowed at least a foot that morning! I called half-way there to see if these Friends of Trees were crazy enough to go through with the planting, and they were. … We got all the trees in the ground and had a super fun time throwing snowballs while getting to know each other. And the Voodoo Doughnuts never tasted better than they did as fuel for warmth that day! - Kris Day (Photo by Chijo Takeda, 2008)

5. Hello from Kristen Saxton and her husband, Joe Rowe. Kristen has been a crew leader for about five years. Left below: Kristen not pregnant. Above right: Kristen and Danielle Kidd. Below right: Kristen pregnant.

6. I remember working in the Holy Family Parish last January. The Father came in and apologized that he had double booked the kitchen & cafeteria. So we shared the facilities with a group who held a funeral service. … It could have been a disaster, but instead we cleaned and put away not just all of our dishware and flatware, but also the other group’s . The church ladies said that they've never had another group clean up after them. - Lonnie Port

7. Eastmoreland/Sellwood-Moreland planting – January 21, 2006 Sometimes a planting one year inspires plantings in subsequent years. The crew in the foreground plants two trees. Three trees from an earlier planting can be seen in the background. - Karen Williams

8. Eastmoreland/Reed/Woodstock planting – February 3, 2007 When you are ‘short’ one pickup truck for a planting, sometimes you have to improvise. … A volunteer helped load trees on the cart attached to his bicycle & transported them to the planting sites. - Karen Williams

9. In January 2009, a bicycle tree planting crew (the first ever, I believe) planted 13 trees for the Sunnyside-Laurelhurst-Kerns tree planting. All tools, trees, stakes & people were transported using cargo bikes, bicycle trailers & regular bicycles. This could be calculated as a carbon-negative (better than carbon neutral) event! The only fuel required was hot pizza and soup at the end of the planting event. - Peter Nierengarten, Neighborhood Trees Crew Leader

10. Meeting an elected official at one of the first-ever plant-by-bike FOT days in February '09 was quite memorable. Councilor Burkholder had to navigate the streets very carefully while tugging the precious cargo on improvised tree carts. But he had a big smile on his face, as we all did, because this was truly an adventure. - Jennifer Smith (Photo by Ethan Jewett)

11. My memorable Friends of Trees story: At the last Montavilla-Mt. Tabor-N. Tabor planting, watching the unbelievable enthusiasm & skills of the bike crew who hauled some GIANT trees to be planted on all kinds of rigs behind their bikes. Not only did they plant trees using only their own bike-power, they did it in Mt. Tabor neighborhood with its serious steep hills! And they acted like it was perfectly easy & normal. What a fun inspiration to witness! - Kristin Wildensee

12. My kids, age 7 and 9, came with me to plant trees, and now when we go to the library or other places we planted, they proudly point out to their friends that they helped plant them. They call them their trees. - Laurie Chatman

13. My Friends of Trees memorable moment was the picture one of the volunteers took of my son eating a big pink frosted Voodoo Doughnut. - Dominic Hartmann

14. Our volunteer leader, Paul, was a sweet, soft-spoken man who gave us safety tips on handling shovels and showed us to judge the depth of the holes needed by locating the top root of our about-to-be-planted dogwood. … We’ll be back. I am raising a little Lorax, who, like the Dr. Seuss character, will one day proclaim, ‘I speak for the trees!’” - Melissa Favara, Metro Parent

15. Friends of Trees was the first place I volunteered when I moved to town 15 years ago. I have been on many tree plants with Friends of Trees. It also helped guide me to working with the City of Tualatin doing natural area restorations as my career. I still love working with FOT. - Chanda Stone, whose son is nicknamed Tuck after Tuck Clinehans, former FOT Natural Area Restoration Manager

16. When we saw the opportunity to plant trees along I-205 in our adjoining neighborhood, Montavilla, we wanted to help. It was a cloudy morning & my son Julian & I headed out. He insisted on bringing his play sand shovel, which he dragged behind him as he ate his complimentary maple bar. We were paired up with the most amazing FOT worker & planted 3 trees that day. The sun broke through and it was glorious to see all these "baby trees" (as Julian calls them) in a row along a desolate stretch of highway. THANK YOU FRIENDS OF TREES FOR ALL THAT YOU DO!!!!!!!! - Liz Sullivan

17. A grove of trees was planted at the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge in early '08 in honor of the '07 wedding of my daughter and her husband, Heather and Kelly Falsani. Recently a tree was gifted to their newborn, Sam, who was born in Minneapolis on Sept. 26, 2009. Cheers and regards for the good work. - Dawn McLean, new grandma

18. I cannot believe how amazingly fun it is to plant trees! There are great people at FOT to work with … I have such a good time every time. And we have had epic times – last winter, how many plantings in snow? … I met Julian at a tree planting in Feb. 2008. The planting was rain and snow in Gresham, at a wetland. WET WET WET it was. I was up to my eyes in warm clothes, and well, that is all it took—the eyes for us both. We've been bonded ever since. - Tricia Sears, crew leader since 1994

19. I fell in love with and married a Friends of Trees employee! - Crew Leader Jen Devnani, who married former Natural Area Restoration Manager Anil Devnani on September 23, 1996

20. Why I Plant Trees Ads

31. Happy Anniversary, Trees & Tree Friends!