Go for the Green –
Trees Columbus ‘Spring For The Green’ Annual Fundraiser Gives $10,000 Reasons Not To Miss It
“Spring for the Green is the perfect fit as Trees Columbus’ signature event,” Dorothy McDaniel, Executive Director of the nonprofit, says of the annual fundraiser coming up Tuesday, April 16.
“It’s casual, there’s great food, beer and wine — it’s just a great time.”
Always popular due its laid-back lawn-party vibe, with adults enjoying a good time as kids frolic about, Spring for the Green is probably best known for the chance to win a $10,000 cash prize. However, it also provides crucial funding to support Trees Columbus’ non-stop efforts to protect the trees that, in turn, protect Columbus.
Standing in Lakebottom Park surrounded by 2,200 trees – the very trees the organization was formed to protect in 2000, when a proposed widening of 13th Street called for them to be cut down — McDaniel explains how Spring for the Green provides the money needed to carry out its educational programs in local school, new plantings in public greenspaces and along city streets, and advocacy efforts. The beloved Midtown park is once again a focal point of Trees Columbus’ efforts, this time as a place – along with others, including Theo McGree Park next to the YMCA on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. – to plant new trees as part of its “Grow Shade” campaign to restore the city’s dwindling tree canopy.
“We partnered with the city a few years ago to collect some data,” McDaniel says, “and it showed we are losing our tree canopy at an alarming rate due to age, disease, storms, you name it.”
Trees Columbus gathered community input and learned our public parks were citizens’ top priority for what would become its Grow Shade initiative to restore the city’s tree canopy. Studies have shown tree canopy removes pollutants from air, soil, and water while also cooling the climate of what scientists call “urban heat islands.” Such local efforts should also provide for specific priorities such as beautification of Lakebottom, praised as the best spot to share with people coming from all segments of the city, and shade for a walking trail in Theo McGree in an underserved area lacking public places for recreation and relaxation, assets proven to combat all manner of social ills.
Earlier this year, Trees Columbus won a $900,000 grant from the U.S. Forestry Service, overseen by the Georgia Forestry Commission, that would fund a partnership with the City of Columbus’ Parks & Recreation and Public Works Depts. to restore tree canopy through the park-focused Grow Shade program.
“So we are now able to start implementing the park plan knowing we will have the money to maintain it,” MdDaniel says. “We have so much work to do but this grant gives us a great start.”
Spring for the Green
5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 16
Spencer Environmental Center, 303 12th St.
Tickets $100 (good for two adults, all food and beverages, kids’ activities, and one entry to raffle drawing)
treescolumbus.org
By Frank Etheridge