Davey Tree Flipbooks

November/December 2014 | 31 Every Tree Tells a Story H ow would you answer the question, "What's your tree story?" That was the question of the day when Davey employees visited Schenley Plaza in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to greet dozens of attendees from the Garden Writers Association annual Symposium. We heard nearly 70 tree stories, proving every tree really does tell a story! Then, we asked our Facebook fans to vote for their favorite story. After 420 people voted, Garden Writer Geri Laufer from Atlanta, Georgia, was the winner, but we think everyone who shared a story won, too. With the volume of stories and votes we received, we were able to donate $1,000 to the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. Here's a list of our top 10 favorite tree stories from our passionate, energetic tree lovers. If you'd like to watch the stories for yourself, go to YouTube and search for "Davey tree stories." • Geri Laufer: Geri shared a story about her childhood in Euclid, Ohio, where she enjoyed a giant pin oak in her front yard. "I loved it so much that my business card has a pin oak to this day," she explains. • Sabrina Schweyer: Little did she know, Sabrina lived just one mile away from the country's largest deciduous tree; a massive sycamore. She says, "When I was about 20, I made my first excursion to the tree and marveled at the experience." • Scott Roller: "It's a beautiful testament to their love and the love of trees," Scott says of two trees that symbolize his parents' marriage. When his parents first moved to his childhood home, they cleared acres of brush and shrubs but left two small trees standing. Forty years later, the trees are large and strong, representing their love. • Dan Freed: After Hurricane Sandy hit, 40 trees were removed from Dan's property. One uprooted tree, a 100-year-old ash tree, had a surprising root ball that Dan turned into a carved birdhouse. He used the roots as a head of hair on a female, used to signify Sandy, and he won best in show at a local art contest. • Joe Desciose: Joe's favorite tree, a dawn redwood, travelled all the way from Tokyo. He told us that his favorite part of the tree is the massive yellow leaves it produces in fall. "I may have the only one of these in Alabama," Joe says proudly. • Christine Froehlich: Christine shared a heartwarming story of one of the first trees she planted in honor of her husband's grandmother, a flowering crabapple. When her loved one unfortunately passed, Christine remembered her by caring for the tree. "After a year of pampering the tree, it was a nice way to remember her," she says. • Pat Stone: As a teenager, Pat and his dog, Sport, used to spend countless hours with a pine tree across from his house. At the time, this certain pine tree was the same size as Pat. "That pine tree used to very kindly let me whine about my life and a lot of times would just be quiet," Pat says. • Nancy Buley: Nancy was blown away when she went to New York City for a tree planting and restoration meeting where hundreds of people attended. "It really just brought home how much trees build community and neighborhoods and bring people together," she explains. • Jacqueline Soule: Moving from Vermont to Arizona as a kid was quite the move for Jacqueline, who describes herself as a forest girl. To remember Vermont's environment, her family planted a pine tree in the backyard. One day as she was climbing the tree, Jacqueline found an owl in the tree. • David Giesler: Growing up in a rural area, David says his favorite tree story to tell is of his two-acre land transforming from barren land to what he described as a wooded oasis. Davey traveled to Pittsburgh's Schenley Plaza in August to ask, "What's your tree story?" to Garden Writers Association annual Symposium attendees. Geri Laufer won our Facebook fans over with her tree story about a magnificent pin oak in the front yard of her childhood home. It's True: Every Tree Tells a Story

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