Growing Friends Plant Seeds of Volunteerism

By MARTIN J. KIDSTON -Independent Record - 10/04/08

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Before the stores opened last Saturday and the sun tempered the morning chill, the line of traffic at the recycling bins already wrapped around the parking lot.

Cars arrived full of old newspapers. Trucks carried garbage bags stuffed with tin cans. Minivans arrived with empty beer bottles and milk jugs.

“I think the community is really responding to the recycling needs,” said Growing Friends of Helena member Betsy Nordell, who helped organize last weekend’s Trash for Trees event.

“It’s a win-win situation,” she added. “You get to recycle your material, and the money raised from the event goes into buying trees and planting them in public places around town.”

Growing Friends, a local organization with about 400 members, has planted thousands of trees across the city over the past 19 years, enhancing area streets and parks.

Most recently, volunteers planted 60 trees along Walnut Street in the Sixth Ward. The project, a joint effort between Growing Friends and area residents, helped beautify the historic district and add value to neighborhood homes.

“We’d like to do more neighborhood projects like that one,” said Paul Cartwright, a Helena city commissioner and member of Growing Friends. “There are also numerous parking lots around town that add blight to certain areas. We’d like to enhance those too. These projects require both the business and the city to step up and make it happen.”

Held twice a year, the recycling drive has enjoyed increased participation each season.

According to Tyler Evilsizer, chairman of S.A.V.E., last Saturday’s drive netted more than 21,000 pounds of glass, 47,000 pounds of newspaper, 3,000 pounds of steel, 2,000 pounds of aluminum, 5,000 pounds of plastic and 7,000 pounds of cardboard.

All told, participants recycled nearly 92,000 pounds of material, up from 80,000 pounds during the fall drive of 2007. Spring drives generally net more, with 99,000 pounds of material this spring and 118,000 pounds the year before.

At last weekend’s event, elderly folks arrived with newspapers tied neatly with string. Others brought in a summer’s supply of Bud Light cans. Local plant nurseries even accepted plastic pots to use for spring flower sales.

“There was a long time when you weren’t seeing too many younger people volunteering,” said Cartwright. “But there seems to be a new wave of them. Hopefully, some of them will become interested in planting trees.”

While the organization is eyeing several future projects, it’s also working to maintain the city’s aging boulevards.

Efforts to plant young trees amid older ones — some pushing the century mark and slowly dying — will pay off for future generations.

“Trees last a long time, but they don’t last forever,” Cartwright said. “We’ve started infill planting in various places.”

“Trees are something that makes the world more beautiful,” added Nordell. “It’s something that future generations can enjoy.”