Plant A Tree ~ Preserve The Health of People And The Planet

 Environment  No Responses »
Apr 242012
 

Did you know that National Arbor Day is Friday, April 27?

According to the National Arbor Day Foundation ~ in 1912, the mayor of Tokyo gave Washington, DC the gift of 3,000 cherry blossom trees to denote the friendship between the United States and Japan.

Each year, the National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates this gift with the nation’s greatest springtime celebration.

Now, 100 years later, the flowering cherry tree remains an American favorite. In honor of the Festival’s Centennial Celebration, all Americans are invited to cast their vote for America’s Favorite Cherry Tree, with winner announced on April 27.

The 27th is the final day of the National Cherry Blossom Festival and Arbor Day 2012.   Be sure and cast your vote here ~

And don’t forget to plant your own trees ~ join the Green Belt Movement (started by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Muta Maathai in 1977) to help plant a billion trees.  Here is how to participate:

Plant a tree or trees.

  • Email us at earthday@shaklee.com with the number of trees planted and their location.
  • We’ll notify the Green Belt Movement so your trees will be counted in the goal for 1 billion.
  • Thank you for doing your part to preserve the health of people and the planet
He that plants trees loves others besides himself.       Thomas Fuller

 

The Loss of a Visionary

 Uncategorized  No Responses »
Sep 272011
 

The NY Times published yesterday the story of a visionary….. Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist  who began a movement to reforest her country by paying poor women a few shillings to plant trees and who went on to become the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, died in Nairobi, Kenya,  on Sunday. She was 71.

I was privileged to attend the Chicago Shaklee convention mentioned in the above video and was so inspired by her wonderful outlook on life, her sacrifices and her dedication to the environment as well as to women.  She was amazing and left us all wanting to do just a little of what she had already accomplished ~ making a difference.

“Wangari Maathai was a force of nature,” said Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations’ environmental program. He likened her to Africa’s ubiquitous acacia trees, “strong in character and able to survive sometimes the harshest of conditions.”

She will truly be missed; however, she has left such a legacy that her vision will go on, empowering women and helping our planet, one person at a time, one tree at a time.  Thank you Wangari for all that you have done and left for us to continue with what you started.

 

 

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