Volunteers of the Year 2017

Tree Pitts­burgh could not to our work with­out the help of our won­der­ful vol­un­teers. Every year they care for thou­sands of plant­ed trees and help us keep things mov­ing at the Her­itage Nursery.

Every year we like to rec­og­nize those indi­vid­u­als and groups who have gone above and beyond the call of vol­un­teer duty. This year, we’re rec­og­niz­ing Miri­am Kwagh, Jen Moreth, and Amer­i­can Eagle Out­fit­ters for all of their hard work.

Jen Moreth

Jen worked with Tree Pitts­burgh through the sum­mer and fall. Jen’s work touched every pro­gram at Tree Pitts­burgh – she helped with edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams, mar­ket­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tions, and spent time at the Her­itage Nursery.
Jen hit the ground run­ning with Tree Pitts­burgh, get­ting start­ed right away on writ­ing blogs and get­ting to know the mis­sion of the orga­ni­za­tion. She taught chil­dren the impor­tance of trees through edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams at local libraries. In addi­tion to this work in the office and out in the com­mu­ni­ty, Jen spent time every week at our Her­itage Nurs­ery, car­ing for trees in the hot sum­mer months.

Most impor­tant­ly, Jen was a vital piece of plan­ning Paw­paw Fest. With­out Jen’s help, the fes­ti­val would not have been such a suc­cess. Jen and Miri­am drove all over Penn­syl­va­nia to har­vest paw­paw fruits for tast­ing, ice cream sand­wich­es, and paw­paw-sicles. Jen’s hard work and ded­i­ca­tion extend­ed into the day of the event, when she took shifts as Oak­lee the Squir­rel, Tree Pittsburgh’s new mascot.

Thanks for every­thing, Jen!

Miriam Kwagh

Miri­am has been with Tree Pitts­burgh since Feb­ru­ary of 2017. She was an imme­di­ate help with Arbor Day Month plan­ning and mak­ing our Arbor Day Cel­e­bra­tion a success.

Miri­am also pro­vid­ed her invalu­able research to Tree Pitts­burgh. She wrote a detailed report on how orga­ni­za­tions across the coun­try do their advo­ca­cy work and made sug­ges­tions for Tree Pitts­burgh  mov­ing for­ward. Miri­am cre­at­ed the map of tree loca­tions from the seedling give­away spon­sored by the Pitts­burgh Shade Tree Com­mis­sion we held on Arbor Day.

Like Jen, Miri­am was instru­men­tal in the plan­ning and exe­cu­tion of Paw­paw Fest. Miri­am and Jen drove to Breeze­wood to pick up paw­paws, har­vest­ed paw­paws from our friends all over Alleghe­ny Coun­ty, and made sure we had plen­ty of fruit to go around the day of the fes­ti­val. Miri­am also helped to orches­trate all of the ven­dors at Paw­paw Fest.

Miri­am, thank you for all of your hard work!

American Eagle Outfitters

Amer­i­can Eagle Out­fit­ters has been a stel­lar cor­po­rate part­ner for five years! Begin­ning in 2013, AEO employ­ees have par­tic­i­pat­ed with us in large tree care events around the city. From the South Side Trail near their office, to East Lib­er­ty Blvd up here in the East End, to Man­ches­ter over in the North Side, AEO employ­ees have spent over 500 hours help­ing us weed, mulch, and beau­ti­fy our city’s young trees.

But they haven’t just helped us to care for trees, they have also helped us plant them! Every fall since 2014, AEO employ­ees have joined us for tree plant­i­ngs around the city. Togeth­er dur­ing these four years, Tree Pitts­burgh and AEO have plant­ed over 150 trees in the com­mu­ni­ties of Green­field, the Hill Dis­trict, and Lawrenceville.

And while vol­un­teer efforts such as these make up the very core of what we are able to accom­plish at Tree Pitts­burgh, it’s impor­tant to note that AEO’s con­tri­bu­tions to our mis­sion haven’t been just through their sweat and hard work. On more than one occa­sion, AEO has kicked off our vol­un­teer events togeth­er by pre­sent­ing Tree Pitts­burgh with mon­e­tary dona­tions that allow us to fuel up our trucks and buy new tools long after the vol­un­teers have gone home.

So, since it has clear­ly been a long time com­ing, it is with great sat­is­fac­tion that we present Amer­i­can Eagle Out­fit­ters with this year’s Cor­po­rate Part­ner of the Year award.