Press Kit
Are you writing a press release about Tree-Plenish or your schools' tree planting event and don't know where to start? We are here to help! Read below for some helpful info!
Tree-Plenish is determined to help schools plan, organize, mobilize, and conduct their school planting events!
2022-23 impact by the numbers:
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22,496 saplings planted
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3,100 volunteers
Quick Facts
Tree-Plenish is a 501(c)(3) non-profit!
Tree-Plenish is partnered with a multitude of organizations that help bring our mission of empowering youth to create a more sustainable and equitable future through community tree-planting to life.
End of Year 2022-2023
Press Release
Trees in urban areas absorb carbon emissions, reduce energy usage, remove air pollutants, filter stormwater, and cool hot city streets by providing shade and releasing water vapor, while promoting good mental and physical health for urban residents.
Resources with more information regarding the benefits of trees:
The Benefits of Trees for Livable and Sustainable Communities (Peer-Review Journal Article)
Lizzy Elsner and Sethu Odayappan, Tree-Plenish’s co-directors started this organization to replenish the amount of paper that was used at their local public high school in Massachusetts. Realizing the success of their event, Tree-Plenish planting events now take place around the country, empower youth leaders, and provide communities with the opportunity to green their cities. This year with Lizzy and Sethu graduating, we have new co-directors, Maddie Groothius and Caroline Belanger.
With all the overwhelming news surrounding climate change, it’s easy to get lost in all of it. There’s one group that is harassing the power of young voices to take action around the nations. All through the power of tree planting. Tree-Plenish is a non-profit organization that is completely student run. Their remote team handles everything from communications, to grant writing, and managing tree-vendor relationships. This article will take a look at how their team manages everything.
The Operations Team handles the logistics of getting saplings to the schools that need them, while ensuring that the tree species are native to the areas they’re being sent to. Sarah McVey, the Director of Operations has been in her role since 2022, but has been with Tree-Plenish since hosting an event in 2021. Her favorite part of working with Tree-Plenish is, “cultivating a team with diverse perspectives surrounding the environmental issues of today, and how the Tree-Plenish organization can do its part to try to ameliorate them.” In addition to managing sapling distribution, the Operations Team applies to grants to financially support Tree-Plenish.
Another big part of the Tree-Plenish team is Mentorship. They handle the communications for High School students, so that the students are prepared to host an event. Evelyn Yao, a mentor with Tree-Plenish, hosts different meetings for high school students, first to introduce them to the process of event planning, then to teach them about sponsorships and day of event meetings. Emma Pautz is an intern on the Mentorship team and loves, “being able to meet people all over the country” with Tree-Plenish. Mentors also answer questions with EZTexting chat support, so students can have quick responses to their questions.
The Strategy and Communications Team handles outreach and social media. One big project for the team has been the introduction of Tree-Plenish college chapters earlier this year. Their team marketed the opportunity and kept in contact with interested university students to get more colleges on board. Siena Roselli is the director of the Strategy and Communications Team she loves “that she gets to work with passionate young students on projects that are going to change the future of our world one tree at a time.”
The whole team is led by Co-Executive Directors Maddie Groothuis and Caroline Belanger. Both work to oversee and support what all the teams do. Caroline is proud of “the fact that our team is able to run a national 501(c)(3) non-profit while being full-time college students is incredible, and is what sets Tree-Plenish apart from other environmental non-profits.”
Everyone works diligently, so that more trees can be planted around the nation. Emma said that “she loves how everyone is so driven.” Many people currently on the team started by hosting an event at their high school, and wanted to continue working with Tree-Plenish. The director of each team from Tech, Operations, Strategy and Communications, to Mentorship, delegates tasks to their team and manages the overall direction of the group. Each team contributes to run a national non-profit.
