Awards for Treemendous volunteers

Treemendous is a York based charity and on Friday 17^th October President Paul Roberts had the great privilege of presenting Paul Harris awards to two of their volunteers. Paul said this is a rare occasion because in the lifetime of the Club we have made only 20 Paul Harris awards to non Rotarians. We recognise today an organisation and two individuals who meet the   criteria of delivering significant contributions to our community within the Rotary ethos.

Frank Paterson said that TREEMENDOUS had a key role in getting our Rotary Family Tree Planting Partnership off the ground in 2017. They opened the door to St Johns University and we succeeded eventually in getting agreement to plant 1200 trees on their land alongside the river Fosse and adjacent to their Sports field off Haxby Road. That gave us the confidence to launch, with the City Registrar, the Rotary offer to parents to plant a tree for every baby born in York in 2018/19. And that was where Derek’s contribution started. He is very well known in York as a champion for trees and he has delivered many  presentations on the merits of tree planting. I recall the one he gave to our club and suggested to us, quite emotionally, that trees do talk to one another.  He is also a well respected and effective Ambassador for the National Charity Woodland Trust and he assured us that he would procure from them all the native species trees needed for the project. Just as significant was his practical advice and involvement in the training of the wide range of volunteers we recruited to do the planting and ongoing maintenance. Derek has always given his time generously and passes on his incredible knowledge so willingly and in a delightful and unassuming way. It has been a privilege and pleasure to have worked with him over the last eight years and this award is very well justified.

John Lacy who introduced Barry Otley John said that Barry has been a selfless contributor to conserving the environment in York for many years. As a former Director of the Challis Garden Centre it can be said that he does know about trees. When he retired, he set about creating his own woodland and personally planted many thousands of trees on land he owned in Knapton. Again, like Derek, he Is not an armchair conservationist, and I recall particularly his and Derek's involvement in one of our projects where on the Saturday  a small group of Rotarians  dug up over 200 self-seeded trees at Badger Hill and replanted them next day on the Haxby road site. They have really flourished!

John finished by quoting an old Greek proverb which reflects a sentiment appropriate to both our recipients and to everyone else involved in planting trees.“Society grows when old men plant trees knowing that they will

 never sit under the shade”

Without the help of Derek and Barry we would not have the thriving Woodland created by the Family Tree Planting Project (See photographs at the end of this report). 

To find out more about the work of TREEMENDOUS follow this link Home and to find out more about the York Rotary Family tree project follow this link Tree Partnership | York Rotary

Derek and Barry were both very worthy recipients of Paul Harris Fellowships having given a lot to the community in their work for TREEMENDOUS.

David Fotheringham and Frank Paterson