Gratitude

I don’t know about you, but I have heard many times recently that 2020 is a year worth forgetting.  Words to that effect. 

Enough already.

I have some good news for you, and it comes with a giant Thank You.  

Here at the Highway of Heroes Tree Campaign, 2020 was our best year ever. 

-          We planted over 600,000 trees, bringing us to within more than 45% of our goal of 2 million trees

-          Ontario government supported us with $1 million

-          Our Remembrance Week/Christmas fund raising drive produced more than double the amount of our mini-campaign last year: over $100,000 matched by a private Canadian donor.

-          We are now within our last $400,000 to meet our goal of $10 million

You could say that this past year set us up for an outstanding 2021. And you would be right. 

This coming year, our plan is to plant over 700,000 more trees. You might be interested in our partnership with Forests Ontario and a one-time opportunity to plant 2.5 acres or more, within 30 kilometres of the 401, from Windsor to the Quebec border, for a few nickels per tree.

We have a lot of people to thank for our success thus far, including you. 

If you made a financial donation, we thank you for your generosity.

If you received this newsletter and shared it, we thank you for spreading the word.

If you saw one of our print ads, featuring the soldier coming out of the woods, and responded in any way, we thank you for paying attention.

If you are a member of the “green” landscaping profession and a member of Landscape Ontario who donated in-kind services, supplies, trees, or materials, we thank you.

If you volunteered to plant trees, we thank you for your good intensions.  While we had to postpone all our public tree planting this past year, we are hopeful that we can ramp them back up come autumn.

To all of you, over 4,500 individual Canadians who have supported us in a wide variety of ways, we say thank you.

To the early adopters, including the Garden Club of Toronto, Maple Leaves Forever Foundation, TD Friends of the Environment, and Frank Cowan Company we say thank you for having faith in us before we had proven ourselves and fulfilled any of our promises.

To all of you, over 4,500 individual Canadians, corporations, foundations, and government agencies who have supported us in a wide variety of ways, we say thank you ever so much.

2021 will be an outstanding year, as we have the momentum and resources to complete our plan to plant 117,000 on the Highway of Heroes right-of-way; one for each Canadian lost at war.  And 1.8 million more trees; one for each Canadian volunteer during times of war. 

Finally, to our Canadian military, past and present, thank you for what you have done to protect us. You make our lives more secure and by so doing, we enjoy riches as Canadians that are beyond measure. 

We are planting 2 million trees in total to acknowledge the service of our military and to enhance and protect our environment. There is that word “protect” again. Perhaps, most of all, we protect what we have by our actions and, by so doing, we enhance the wealth of our nation in ways that are not always measurable.

This coming year will be full of news from our Campaign headquarters, including exciting announcements of what the “next chapter” looks like. 

We are not finished saying thank you to our military and soon, our frontline workers and first responders.

We are not finished planting trees.

We are just beginning.

All that we ask is that you stay tuned to this newsletter for more.

With sincere best wishes for a healthy 2021.

Sincerely, 

 Mark Cullen

Chair, HoH TC on behalf of our board and our team.