VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA – January 19, 2012 – Love Trees is honoured to award the 2011 Love Trees Leadership Award of Merit to Jon T. High, Team Leader at Teule Kenya.  Jon lead a successful 2011 Tree Planting event sponsored by Love Trees in honour of Nobel Laureate Wangari Mathai. He planted 100 fruit trees with orphans and vulnerable children in Oloitokitok, on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro – an area that has suffered considerable deforestation. Read the full press release here.

Love Trees PARTNERSHIP AWARD OF MERIT awarded to HostPapa for giving 10,000 children in Africa trees

VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA – January 19, 2012 – HostPapa Green Web Hosting was awarded the 2011 Love Trees Partnership Award of Merit today in honour of HostPapa’s TREE-mendously successful 2011 Earth Day Awareness Campaign which raised enough money to give 10,000 children trees in Malawi and Zambia. Read more.

WATCH: A Wish Tree for Every Child - a short film by Andrea Koehle Jones (Russell Hill Productions)
A tree for every child.

There’s never been a better time to teach kids that they can make the world a better place. If children are going to make a lifelong commitment to protect the environment for themselves and future generations, they first need time to explore the wonders of nature.

These days many children have less time and fewer opportunities to connect with nature. This is a real loss because research shows that contact with nature makes kids feel better about themselves.

One of the best ways to learn about the environment is to plant a tree of your own and watch it grow.

Please comment and click like because every time you watch and share this video you are helping to put a tree in the hands of children everywhere.

Produced, filmed and directed by Andrea Koehle Jones
Art by Avery, 6 and Holden, 8
Music: ‘African’ by Patrick Carmichael

Andrea is also on IndieGOGO: http://www.indiegogo.com/love-trees

Unexpected great news: The Wish Trees (by Love Trees executive director Andrea Koehle Jones) just received a GREAT REVIEW from WordsbyMom.com!!!

“This book is truly a wonderful Holiday gift. The world would be an even more beautiful place if we all planted a Wish Tree!” 

You can buy The Wish Trees online at Chapters-Indigo, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. For more information and links to order visit: http://www.thewishtrees.com/

 Just returned from Africa: The ChariTREE Foundation team is back from a project inspection and fact-finding trip to eastern and southern Zambia. The team visited Mumbi Village in Petauke District in Eastern Province, where they were taken on a tour by children to a tree nursery. In the same area the team also visited Manga Village and saw mango planted three years ago growing beautifully beside houses and outside the school.

In southern Zambia, we visited two more schools outside Livingstone. We also toured a commercial tree nursery that may also be able to supply trees for our future projects in the region. After many meetings we came back with a better understanding of the challenges of doing tree planting projects and environmental education in Zambia. We are more inspired than ever to give children in Zambia a tree of their own. One thing is certain, Zambia needs trees, according to the UN food agency, the  Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Zambia is among the top 10 countries in the world with the highest annual deforestation rate. Watch the Love Trees YouTube Video.

(left: drawing of Baobab tree in Zambia by Avery, 6)

• In honour of Wangari Maathai :  The ChariTREE Foundation and Love Trees will give children in Kenya and Zambia a mango tree in honour of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai. We have also been decorating trees with hummingbirds in her honour – you can too. We made these hummingbirds with recycled paper. Email photos of trees you have decorated to info (at) charitree (dot) ca or post to ourFB page: https://www.facebook.com/ChariTREE. (Watch Wangari Maathai’s hummingbird video)
•  I will be a hummingbird. I will do the best I can.
  
  
• ChariTREE is Growing. The ChariTREE Foundation is expanding it’s successful children’s tree giving programs outside of Canada. ChariTREE’s first international project: giving 5,000 children in Zambia fruit or nut trees.
• Canadian Campers Plant 30,000 Trees.
  
• Unexpected Good News!!! My Persephone (the Shannon Robinson song with lyrics and photo by The ChariTREE Foundation executive director Andrea Koehle Jones) made the Jango “Top 10 Airplay bands” list last week (September 13, 2011 list). http://jangoairplay.blogspot.com.  A portion of proceeds from iTunes downloads of the song support children’s tree projects in Africa. 

• Plans underway for ChariTREE executive director to visit Love Trees projects in Zambia this fall.
• Every day is Earth Day at ChariTREE: Free trees to kids across Canada.
• Centon Electronics, Inc. and Staples are helping The ChariTREE Foundation grow.
• Free children’s tree planting program in honour of the UN International Year of Forests.
• ChariTREE mention: Going Green for Under $20.
• HostPapa Green Web Hosting partners with Love Trees for Earth Day promotion.
• Hébergement vert HostPapa s’associe à Love Trees pour la promotion du Jour de la terre.
• Centon Electronics, Inc. and Staples are pleased to announce they are partnering with The ChariTREE Foundation to support children’s tree planting projects and environmental education programs throughout Canada.
• The Wish Trees, the children’s tree planting book written by The ChariTREE Foundation’s executive director Andrea Koehle Jones and illustrated by Alicia Padrón, has just been added to the Rainforest Heroes: Rainforest-safe book list: http://www.rainforestheros.com/es/readinglist
• The ChariTREE Foundation is now a member of the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign.
• The ChariTREE Foundation partnered with the Canadian Camping Association and planted 9,235 trees across Canada this summer with children at 47 different summer camps.
• Des Campeurs Canadiens Donnet un Coup de Pouce à L’environment

• My Persephone featuring talented Canadian singer/songwriter Shannon Robinson  is now on iTunes and cdbaby. Soulful and haunting, this is a song about love, loss and seasons of grieving. Lyrics by Andrea Koehle Jones, executive director of The ChariTREE Foundation, reflect our deep and fragile connection to trees. My Persephone is dedicated to everyone who loves trees and a portion of profits will be donated to Love Trees.

• Love Trees is partnering with Urban Promise to plant trees with inner city kids in Camden New Jersey this fall. To learn more about Urban Promise and what life is like for kids in Camden watch this 20/20 Diane Sawyer Special:

Waiting on the World to Change: The Hopes, Dreams and Hardships of Children in America’s Most Dangerous City.

• ChariTREE mention: Rent or buy Avatar on April 22 and Avalanche Movie will make a donation to the ChariTREE Foundation: http://www.gocanmore.com/canmore-events-general.html
• ChariTREE partnering with the Canadian Camping Association to plant thousands of trees with campers this summer (April 2010 article) http://www.ccamping.org/index.php?id=3&nid=29
• ChariTREE mention: DK/SAL Announces Environmental Charity Initiave (March 2010) http://www.diamondkote.com/pressroom
• ChariTREE mention (Jan 2010 United Nations article) http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/campaignNews/Lovetrees.asp
• ChariTREE mention (Dec 2009 Canada.com and The North Shore News article) http://www2.canada.com/northshorenews/news/story.html?id=bb9c458c-8c56-4e20-a1b9-612e40349c85
• ChariTREE OP-ed: HOPELESS IN HOPENHAGEN (Dec 2009) http://www.opednews.com/a/104078?show=votes#allcomments
• COP-15 photos by ChariTREE executive director on BBC (scroll to polar bears taking time to relax): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8410278.stm
• ChariTREE mention on Evergreen site (JANUARY 2010) http://www.evergreen.ca/en/about/supporters/sponsors.sn
• ChariTREE mention (ongoing) http://www.datagroup.ca/green/index.html
• ChariTREE mention on The Necessary Revolution (Nov 2009) http://ryanflood.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/trees-i’ve-got-trees/
• ChariTREE will receive 5% of Rainflower sales on orders of $100 + (ongoing) http://rainflowercompany.com/links/
• ChariTREE Canada.com and North Shore News article (June 2009) :http://www2.canada.com/northshorenews/news/story.html?id=c544cb08-c32a-4c33-8cc5-08b99f5ad33e
• The Wish Trees by Andrea Koehle Jones, executive director of The ChariTREE Foundation, is mentioned in Positively Green Magazine.

Visit The Green News Network for all the latest news. GNN is Canada’s environmental news network.