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RI President Ian Riseley has said “Protecting the environment and curbing climate change are essential to Rotary’s goal of sustainable service.” In response, District Governor Bob Halagan challenged District 5950 Rotarians to plant 2,700 trees this Rotary year.
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epresentatives from eight D5950 clubs met with The Nature Conservancy and Great River Greening in August to create a collaborative project that would plant 25,000 trees in Minnesota this Rotary year, in addition to the trees planted by club projects. The goal is to raise $10,000 from Rotary clubs. The Nature Conservancy will match up to $10,000. A district grant of $6,000 from DDF would create a total of $26,000 of funds for the project – enough to plant over 25,000 trees in Minnesota.We now have 42 clubs participating in tree planting this year. Twenty-one clubs have pledged $8,530 to the tree planting collaboration and 13 of those are participating in both the collaboration and a club project. If your club is not yet participating in tree planting, make your club's pledge to the collaboration soon to steve@solbrack.com. The D5950 tree planting collaboration project is featured on the international Environmental Sustainability Rotarian Action Group’s (ESRAG) website home page and projects page.
There are two great volunteer opportunities, open to all Rotarians in District 5950.
- The first opportunity will be a tree planting project on the North Shore on May 10-11. We will plant 2,000 seedling trees on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. There will be great fellowship and an overnight stay in Two Harbors or Duluth Canal Park. Six of the 20 available spots are already filled.
- The second outing is on Saturday, May 19 at Crosby Farm Regional Park, located on the Mississippi River in St. Paul. The plan is to have 75 Rotarians plant up to 3,000 trees; 36 have already registered so sign up soon with steve@solbrack.com. Summit Brewery is within walking distance. We have reserved it and will enjoy free tours and discounted tap beers.