Your Facebook Support = Real Live Trees

MAY 22, 2014

Summer is just a month away and like many others, Sunshine Girl Charities is headed outside to enjoy the warmer weather!  We’re keeping busy out there though.  We pledged to donate and plant a tree for every new Facebook like that our page receives in the month of May.  As of today, 157 new fans have joined our cause.  

This latest endeavor to beautify and enrich the environment is keeping us local - in Asbury Park to be specific.  On Saturday, May17, five volunteers from Sunshine Girl Charities got our hands dirty with eight others from the Asbury Park Environmental and Shade Tree Commission (ESTC) at their community garden on Bangs Avenue.  Just across from the post office, you’ll see seven new fruit trees - peach, pear, apple, plum, and fig - compliments of Sunshine Girl Charities and your support of our Facebook page.  

The community garden, started in 2012, is an urban paradise full of edible plants.  It started with a plot of 15 raised beds to be used for raising vegetables.  The veggies from ten of those beds went to local food pantries.  Community members were encouraged to rent the other beds.  The garden not only provides residents with an opportunity to raise crops, even if they live in an apartment without outdoor space. It also brings people together to learn from one another.        

We’re happy to have contributed the very first fruit trees in ESTC’s garden. When the trees begin producing fruit in one to two years, the treats will be free for the taking for the entire community.  The varieties we’ve selected can continue providing food for nearly 40 years though they their lifespans can be more than double that amount of time.  Each day they’ll provide shade and oxygen as well as a habitat for local wildlife.

With seven trees in the ground, we have at least 150 more trees to plant - even more if you encourage your friends to like our Facebook page!  Now the Sunshine Girl herself would like to invite every one of our supporters to get involved by suggesting a new location for tree planting.  Where would you like to see some of those 150 trees spring up?  Let us know here in the comments section of our blog or by visiting our Facebook page.  

And as always, we couldn’t have done any of this without you so thank you for your commitment to the environment!