3rd Base and Headed for Home
Above: A Vimy Oak stands proudly on a misty morning. It is surrounded by various newly planted native trees, part the Memorial Arboretum planted at Sunnybrook in Toronto
Details on this planting can be found here.
This beautiful photo was provided by Janet Young
Forgive the obvious baseball analogy. The Blue Jays may have fallen short in their playoff run, however: The Highway of Heroes Tree Campaign is already a winner, thanks to you!
This summer, we announced, in this newsletter, that the province of Ontario and the Ministry of Transportation awarded $1 million to our campaign. Only a couple of weeks later, the Ontario Trillium Foundation announced that they are supporting our commemorative tree planting efforts with $500,000. Which brings us to over 95% of our $10 million goal.
So why am I casting credit your way? Because without your support, none of the big donors would have noticed our campaign. Our requests for support would have been swept under the broad reach of low hanging branches, where many “asks” are swept. Instead, you did an amazing thing. Private Canadian citizens stepped to the plate and gave their hard-earned cash until we reached about $4.5 million. THEN the heavy hitters took notice.
And here we are, 5 years into our campaign, from a standing start. On the last lap and asking, one more time, to help us finish the task: planting almost 2 million trees to permanently memorialize those Canadians who died during times of war and volunteered to serve in our military.
Here’s the Thing.
Speaking of generosity, we can now offer matching funds for every dollar raised before the end of the year. Double the impact of your donation and receive a tax deduction. Simple. Just click here for all the details. You can donate online, send us a cheque by mail or give us a call to process your donation by phone. However you donate, every dollar will be matched, doubling your impact to our campaign and helping us get closer to crossing the finish line.
In truth, over 3,500 individual Canadians, corporations, Veteran’s associations, service clubs and not-for-profit organisations have supported us. Some are Silver Cross Mom’s and Dad’s, people who lost a son or daughter while serving Canada in the military.
Others are members of the military or first responders.
Photo by Janet Young
Is That the End of It?
Not on your life.
First, we need to have money in the bank before we can plant trees. And planting trees we are: this fall we are planting over 16,000 trees both on the Highway of Heroes right of way and off the highway, on a corridor that runs the length of the 401.
We are also working on providing permanent signage to commemorate this campaign and remind future generations what this tree planting campaign was all about. A reminder to your great-grand children that this generation cared.
We cared enough to remember those who fought and made the supreme sacrifice for our freedom. We cared enough to make a measurable contribution to benefit the environment.
Our campaign is a gift of clean air and a cooler environment for countless years.
Indeed, we are at 3rd base. Will you help to hit us home?
Sincerely,
Mark Cullen
Chair, Highway of Heroes Tree Campaign.