GUELPH \u2013 With piles of old Christmas trees being converted to mulch, the Children\u2019s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington\u2019s annual Trees for Tots event may have meant an end to the Christmas season, but the spirit of giving was still going strong.<\/p>\n
The fundraiser, marking its 13th year, raised more than $85,000 to support the foundation\u2019s programming for children and youth.<\/p>\n
The event, which took place this year on Jan. 11, sees teams of volunteers collecting Christmas trees from the curb in exchange for donations, filling a gap in service that was created when the City of Guelph ended curbside collection of Christmas trees, and supporting the Children\u2019s Foundation at the same time.<\/p>\n
According to a social media post following the event, more than 3,600 trees were picked up by volunteers who took part in the event, which now also includes Puslinch and Rockwood.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been so fulfilling for our entire team to see the community come together each year to fulfill a need (tree pickups) which doubles as a massive fundraiser for the Children\u2019s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington,\u201d mortgage broker Doug Adlam, of presenting sponsor Indi Mortgage, stated in a news release.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could not be more proud of the community impact Trees for Tots has each year, and our ongoing partnership with the foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The impact of the event is not only through funds raised, but also what happens to the trees.<\/p>\n
This year, mulch from chipped trees has been donated to the Arboretum for its walking trails and other projects, the release said.<\/p>\n
As well, more than 150 whole trees were donated to Freshwater Conservation Canada for creek restoration efforts at Marden Park and other locations across the province.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are proud to continue to work with environmental partners to make a positive impact in our community in more ways,\u201d stated Amanda Kavchak,\u00a0 <\/span>Children\u2019s Foundation director of marketing and communications.<\/p>\n \u201cEach year, we look at this event from a sustainability lens, ensuring that we are considering our environmental impact in every planning step. From connecting with community partners for chip and tree donations, to cutting down on mileage and printing costs, we continue to take steps to increase our sustainable impact every year.\u201d<\/p>\n She added, \u201cWe encourage the community to continue to follow our organization on social media to discover more stories of how their tree continues to shine in our local environment.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to the presenting sponsor, the event was supported by lead partners JL\u2019s Tree Service and Hersey Bins.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir generosity and expertise, along with many other event partners and sponsors, made the event successful once again this year,\u201d the news release stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GUELPH \u2013 With piles of old Christmas trees being converted to mulch, the Children\u2019s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington\u2019s annual Trees for Tots event may have meant an end to the Christmas season, but the spirit of giving was still going strong. The fundraiser, marking its 13th year, raised more than $85,000 to support the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7419,2858,1146,41930,41928,41929,41927,5122,7301],"class_list":["post-195002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-arboretum","tag-childrens-foundation-of-guelph-and-wellington","tag-city-of-guelph","tag-freshwater-conservation-canada","tag-hersey-bins","tag-indi-mortgage","tag-jls-tree-service","tag-marden-park","tag-trees-for-tots","location-guelph","edition-vol-58-issue-04"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n