While we do our planting throughout Toronto this May 6th weekend, we’re profiling volunteer leader Clifford Tindall.
KA-BOOM, like thunder (which there thankfully wasn't any of on Saturday), Clifford Tindall gets our Rexdale planting done, while the Pocket also sees amazing volunteers building our city's tree canopy.
Volunteer profiles aren't something I think we've ever done, and probably that should change since there are so many Transition Toronto people who deserve to be profiled (and we salute you!). Today we're profiling Clifford for his critical intervention in what otherwise would have been an unacceptable disaster for us.
Clifford Tindall is a long-time, and super-dedicated TreeMobile volunteer. He also runs his own Spiritleaf retail store in Little Italy.
We needed to get a huge order of trees planted on April 29th and we were scrambling to build crews. Every crew needs a leader. Virginie Gysel, TreeMobile's founder, was committed to our planting on the same day in the Pocket. I wasn't available on the 29th. TreeMobile is a pretty lean group, so we didn't have anyone else who we knew could lead a TreeMobile crew. But we did know Clifford.
Clifford Tindall first volunteered for TreeMobile in 2016, and he made sure he did a good job of staying in touch with us. He made the effort to stay part of the team, and due to those efforts, we were able to call him in on special jobs like our smaller, but still important, fall plantings. He's planted many trees with us, he's seen how we operate, but he runs his own business and he's a busy guy. We didn't know if we could get him to run a planting crew on his own for the first time, but he rearranged his whole work schedule so that he could take care of the Rexdale crew for us. THEN on the day of the planting it rained and was a totally miserable day. He said, "That's what raincoats are for."
He showed up. The crew showed up. They got the job done, and now Rexdale has the equivalent of a new food forest, as well as some BIG carbon-sequestering shade trees (they were some of the biggest trees TreeMobile has ever planted).
Judson Chiu was also essential to the Rexdale planting. Judson doesn't live in Toronto anymore, but he drove in from out of town to bring past TreeMobile planting experience, his vehicle, as well as his own experience with trees and farming. Thanks so much to Judson, the other Rexdale volunteers, and everyone who planted with Virginie in The Pocket. There are lots of trees where before there were none, and we have all of you to thank for that.
Clifford at Spiritleaf
Now, you already know, based on things like our local (super-not-crypto) currency project and EcoFair Toronto, that we're a huge proponent of local business and we see the link between local business and resilient communities. Well Clifford has a local business, so we were inspired to let you know about it, since he did such a huge favour for TreeMobile and Transition Toronto. Clifford is an owner of Spiritleaf Little Italy, and the Spiritleaf franchise understands the contributions that make local business a part of resilient communities, too. They operate with the specific goal of creating deep and lasting ties within local communities.
Here's Clifford at his shop in Little Italy a few weeks ago when the weather was approximately a billion times better than it was on the day of the Rexdale and Pocket plantings.
Thank you so much to all our volunteers who planted on April 29th, who will plant on May 7th, and who will work with us in the future!
Let us know what you think about us continuing volunteer profiles in the future. We've had so many great volunteers in the past. If you know someone (or are someone) who should be profiled, don't be afraid to send us a nomination.