What Difference CAN $10 make?

As you might imagine, this group of hooligans has more than a few things in common.

We love the great outdoors. We love trees. We love Indy.

From the very start of the project, we knew that our team would devote time during our trip to Tanzania to reforest Mount Kilimanjaro with Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots organization and protect the ecosystem surrounding the mountain. We also knew that we wanted to make an impact in our local community in Indianapolis and began to collect aluminum cans in order to reduce waste in our homes, places of work, and community at large, ecofund our collective trip, and offset the carbon footprint of the travel itself. Fast forward a few months, and we came across an awesome opportunity to make an even larger impact on our environment by planting trees in Indianapolis!

With the help of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. and Vallonia Nursery Division of Forestry, our plan is to do in our city what we plan to do on the base of Mount Kilimanjaro in only nine months - improve the local environment by planting indigenous trees! Commencing on #GivingTuesday, we began to fundraise for our tree-planting efforts and with each $10 raised, we are committing to plant one tree in Indianapolis. Our goal as a team is to raise enough funds to plant 200 trees because (1) we love a round number and (2) this quantity of trees equates to approximately one acre of trees in total!

So maybe you’re thinking… what difference can one tree make? Here are a few hot takes for you:

• A single tree can provide an estimated $273 worth of environmental benefits for one year. (American Forest Organization)

• One large tree can supply a day's supply of oxygen for four people. (NC State University, Dept. of Horticultural Science)

• One large tree can lift up to 100 gallons of water out of the ground and discharge it into the air in one day. (Tree Canada Foundation)

• The net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to 10 room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day. (U.S. Department of Agriculture)

• One tree can sequester (or take in) more than one ton of carbon dioxide in its lifetime. Planting trees and avoiding deforestation are key measures in reducing the human impact on global climate change. (National Wildlife Federation)

So what difference can $10 make? As it turns out, quite a big difference! As of the publishing of this blog, we’ve already raised enough funds to plant 71 trees throughout the city of Indianapolis, but our work isn’t done yet, so here’s our ask of you: consider donating $10 (or more!) to sponsor a tree to be planted in Indianapolis and spread the word to your friends and family! We invite you to be a part of this initiative to keep our city greener and thank you to all the many people who are already supporting us!

Link to Donate: https://www.gofundme.com/cans-for-kili

Here’s to a tree coming to a neighborhood near you,

The Advocate