THE LEAFLET

In partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, Bank of America has provided $250,000 to support community health and resilience grants to four local environmental organizations. Along with Trees Atlanta, Friends of the Urban Forest in San Francisco, and The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society – Casey Trees was awarded funding that will contribute to projects aimed at increasing environmental equity in underserved neighborhoods and vulnerable communities in four cities across the country. 

Specifically, our planting projects will take place in an area of the Oxon Run Park community, where many families are currently living below the poverty line and are at high risk during increasingly frequent periods of extreme heat. 

We all know that trees have many benefits in cities and parks but what are often overlooked are the mental health benefits and sense of peace trees bring. Oxon Run is the largest park in the city’s inventory. Their goal is to enhance the community’s mental and physical well-being through trails, tree plantings, amphitheater performances, exercise, and outdoor learning. 

For the past 50 years, the Arbor Day Foundation has worked to plant nearly 500 million trees around the world. Through a global network of partnerships, the Foundation facilitates projects that empower organizations of all sizes to reach their environmental and sustainability goals via measurable, impactful work through trees and forests. The Foundation recently announced an initiative to plant 500 million trees over the next five years where trees are needed most. 

Bank of America has provided the Arbor Day Foundation with $1 million in grants since 2018 and supported the Foundation’s Time for Trees™ initiative as a member of its Evergreen Alliance. The initiative succeeded in planting 100 million trees and engaging five million tree planters worldwide by this year – which is the 150th anniversary of the Arbor Day holiday.