ForestPlanet Makes Community Connections
ForestPlanet’s Executive Director Hank Dearden was delighted to be the guest speaker for the Women of All Saints Episcopal Church Fall Luncheon series in Chevy Chase, Maryland. While the title of the speech may seem curious: “After a lovely meal we still need to do the dishes… What’s this got to do with trees?” the point was very simple – We all enjoy the earth’s bounty in countless ways and we must work to maintain it.
Hank shared several stories of ForestPlanet’s work with local partners in Tanzania and Morocco. He illustrated the challenges and progress of select projects with photos and drone footage of our work establishing mangrove nurseries, planting native saplings on hillsides to prevent erosion and filter water, and providing subsistence farmers with fruit producing trees for agroforestry.
We are very grateful to our friends at All Saints Church for this opportunity and are eager to share our story of duty, hard work, and hope for the planet with other interested organizations.
ForestPlanet also brought our call for urgent action to heal the earth to Alexandria, Virginia. We are extremely grateful to the wonderful staff at the Patagonia Old Town store for allowing us to screen a powerful new documentary on November 2. Common Ground is the highly anticipated sequel to the juggernaut success documentary, Kiss the Ground, which touched over 1 billion people globally and inspired the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to put $20 billion toward soil health. By fusing journalistic expose’ with deeply personal stories from those on the front lines of the food movement, Common Ground unveils the web of money, power, and politics behind our food system.
ForestPlanet extends our sincere gratitude to the celebrities featured in the film who use their fame for good: Woody Harrelson, Jason Momoa, Rosario Dawson, Laura Dern, Donald Glover, and Ian Somerhalder.
Special thanks to the Alexandria 51+ Meetup for bringing out a big crew!
And last but not least, we wish to thank our generous corporate partner Wyld Coffee for ongoing support and for providing us with popular door prizes!