—by Mike Coleman
107ist partners with Friends of Trees and the PTFC to plant Trees for Goals in SE Portland on Saturday, December 7th.
2013 has been a truly special season for the Portland Timbers. Over the past year we have seen the Timbers go from our beloved perennial underdogs to one of the strongest teams in the top league of the land. Moreover, the foundation has been laid for our continued success well into the future. Come join us as we reflect on and celebrate this great season by planting trees for the team’s goals of the 2013 campaign. The FO is letting us request which goals we would like to plant the trees for, so write your comments below on which goals were your personal favorites. Since there is no shortage of “top goal” lists, let’s focus on those that meant the most to us and/or had the most memorable celebrations.
If you are a 107ist member, be sure to use the promotion code you received in the recent members-only email so you can be a part of our group. All 107ist members that attend will receive a special gift reflective of the season. If you are a part of a group that wants to attend, make sure each 107ist member signs up individually to make sure we bring enough gift items.
If you are not a 107ist member, don’t worry, we would be happy for you to join us. Also, don’t feel left out that you don’t get one of our gifts. The Timbers’ Stand Together Team will be bringing some swag too.
More than goals and gifts, planting trees has a direct impact on the health and livability of our neighborhoods and, there is nothing like seeing a kid come out of a home we’re planting at knowing that they’ll watch it grow remembering that it was planted by the TA. Our relationship with Friends of Trees is at a point that they call on our help when they are doing plantings in lower income neighborhoods with disadvantaged populations that typically have a lower turnout for volunteer activities. This is such an event as they are planting 255 trees in eight neighborhoods of Southeast Portland and asked for our help even before the FO was involved. For our part, we will be focusing on the Woodstock, Brentwood-Darlington, and Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhoods which often have lower turnouts. As we go into these neighborhoods we are able to be visible, make connections, and build the social capital that we can later draw on when we want to do a project that more directly reflects our mission to promote soccer from the grass roots. Your involvement is essential and we hope you can join us.
In addition, there is still a need for pickup trucks to follow the planting crews with trees and supplies. On the opposite side, this planting will have some “bike only” crews riding around. If you’d like to be a part of a bike crew or have a pickup you can bring, hit the “contact the organizer” button on the Eventbrite signup and we’ll be sure to get you properly situated.
While this event is scheduled to be done at 1:00, if we get enough volunteers, we should be able to finish early. If you’re planning to watch the MLS Cup Final, we'll be pushing to give you time to get to a viewing location. We’re currently working to organize a viewing site close to the area we’ll be planting in but, don’t have everything worked out yet. We’ll keep you posted.
We'll be starting up at 8:45 so show up early and have some coffee, breakfast snacks, and good times before we get started.
We hope to see you out there!
Onward, Rose City.
