Trees Atlanta Receives $35K Grant from State Farm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Left to right: John Oxford – State Farm Agent, Decatur GA; Lauren Sandoval – Trees Atlanta Environmental Educator; Renate Dugans – Public Affairs Specialist, State Farm; Kwanza Hall – Atlanta City Council Member- District 2; Greg Levine – Co-Executive Director, Trees Atlanta; Connie Veates – Co-Executive Director, Trees Atlanta; Carol Vanderschaaf- Community Volunteer; Alex Beasley – Trees Atlanta Environmental Educator
$35,000 Grant from State Farm will fund Environmental Education
ATLANTA, GA, October 9, 2013 — Trees Atlanta is pleased to announce the receipt of a $35,000 grant from the State Farm Youth Advisory Board! The funding will support Trees Atlanta’s youth education program, Urban Tree Trackers, which promotes art, environmental science, leadership, and volunteerism to students K-12 in City of Atlanta schools through student-led projects.
State Farm presented a ceremonial check to Trees Atlanta at a press conference at Mary Lin Elementary School in Atlanta, GA, on Tuesday, October 8, 2013. Students, teachers, and Atlanta City Council Member Kwanza Hall (District 2) were in attendance, as well as the Co-Executive Directors of Trees Atlanta, Greg Levine and Connie Veates.
“Thank you to the State Farm Youth Advisory Board for this wonderful grant f $35,000 to support Trees Atlanta’s Urban Tree Trackers program,” said Levine. “We are honored to have been chosen to fulfill the mission of the advisory board.”
In the Urban Tree Trackers program, environmental educators from Trees Atlanta conduct between 5-10 visits with a class over the course of the year, culminating in either the installation of a garden on school property or an off-site volunteer planting project. Visits also incorporate Artscapes projects, which build a connection between art and science by fostering creative, hands-on, student-focused learning.
“You can’t grow a better public-private partnership than this one,” said Atlanta City Councilmember Kwanza Hall. “Thanks to State Farm’s generosity and vision, students in Atlanta’s public schools will be able to expand their horizons through hands-on learning experiences, led by one of Atlanta’s great nonprofit organizations.”
The Urban Tree Tracker program complies with Georgia Performance Standards and makes school lessons stronger by getting kids outside and involved in a community projects. Lauren Sandoval, coordinator of the Urban Tree Tracker program, says, “Students have told us that gardens give them a chance to truly be responsible for a project from start to finish. They also say they have a much stronger attachment to lesson they are learning since they are actually digging in the soil, choosing plants because they produce fruit or attract bees, or figuring out how weather will affect native plants.”
For more information on the Urban Tree Trackers program and Trees Atlanta, please visit https://treesatlanta.org/our-programs/youth-education/.
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About Trees Atlanta
Trees Atlanta is a nationally-recognized citizens group that protects and improves Atlanta’s urban forest by planting, conserving and educating. Since 1985, Trees Atlanta has planted and distributed more than 96,000 trees. For more information about Trees Atlanta, visit www.treesatlanta.org or call 404-522-4097.
About State Farm
State Farm and its affiliates are the largest provider of car insurance in the U.S. and is a leading insurer in Canada. In addition to providing auto insurance quotes, their 18,000 agents and more than 69,000 employees serve 81 million policies and accounts – more than 79 million auto, home, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and nearly 2 million bank accounts. Commercial auto insurance, along with coverage for renters, business owners, boats and motorcycles, is also available. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 44 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit http://www.statefarm.com or in Canada http://www.statefarm.ca.
