Colony Park Tree-Planting To Highlight Day of Service!

Photo courtesy: www.caseytrees.org — Photo courtesy:
http://www.caseytrees.org

Volunteers needed for Nov. 1 event

The City of Austin and its community partners are sponsoring a Day of Service Nov. 1 to plant more than 100 trees to kick-start beautification efforts in the Colony Park neighborhood of Northeast Austin.

The trees will help provide shade and enhanced landscaping near Turner-Roberts Recreation Center, Overton Elementary and parkland adjacent to those facilities.

The Day of Service will be from 9 a.m. to noon. Participants will gather at the recreation center, 7201 Colony Park Drive, for a brief ceremony; then go to planting sites.

Volunteers can register at http://www.treefolks.org/volunteer or can just walk up and join in any time after 9 a.m. All gardening tools and gloves will be provided and all ages are welcome.

Each 15-gallon tree needs a crew of three to four, so there will be many opportunities to participate.

The Day of Service is much more than planting trees.

Festivities will include the launch of a community garden, a demonstration on how to properly plant a tree, information booths, music and free food.

The Day of Service was organized by the University of Texas Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, one of the partners in the Colony Park Sustainable Community Initiative. Along with the City and UT, the Colony Park Neighborhood Association is another instrumental partner in the project.

Event sponsors include TreeFolks, a non-profit that promotes urban forestry practices, and Little Helping Hands, an agency that facilitates family volunteering.

The Colony Park Sustainable Community Initiative is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to the City’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department.

The program has produced a master plan for undeveloped public land and adjacent parkland and continues to provide opportunities for community empowerment and sustainability.