Trees Atlanta announced their 2022 Tree Champions: Westside Future Fund (Community), Georgia Power (Corporate), Paul Zurawski (Individual), Chosewood Park (Neighborhood), and Myrtle Lewin (Volunteer). Each year the organization awards five Tree Champions for their extraordinary history of teamwork and dedication to Trees Atlanta and efforts to protect the urban canopy across metro Atlanta.

In 2022, Trees Atlanta passed a milestone of 150,000 trees planted across metro Atlanta. With the support of volunteers, community groups, and corporate partners, they began planting the 12th mile of the Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum, forest restoration teams improved the ecological health of 400 acres of forested land, and education staff adapted in-person and virtual learning opportunities to reach thousands of youth and adult learners in continuously changing times. Trees Atlanta delivers incredible outcomes with the support, time, and talent of dedicated volunteers. The Tree Champion award allows Trees Atlanta to honor five of these outstanding volunteers and organizations.

The 2022 Tree Champions will be celebrated at Trees Atlanta’s annual fundraising event Root Ballon Thursday, May 19, 2022 at The Stave Room.

2022 Tree Champion - Volunteer: Myrtle Lewin

Myrtle Lewin has been volunteering with Trees Atlanta since 2003 and has coordinated the Tu B’Shevat planting for over ten years. At 79, she has every intention of maintaining her work, whether by continuing to plant trees as she does regularly, by helping to organize projects, or introducing others to Trees Atlanta. Through her efforts, she said, “We’re not only planting trees; we’re planting tree planters.” 

2022 Tree Champion - Neighborhood: Chosewood Park

Chosewood Park neighbors with Trees Atlanta and volunteers have planted over 300 trees in Chosewood parks, streetside, and front yards this year alone. They’ve continued forest restoration work in Chosewood Park in a multi-year project to remove large fields of invasive species and developed a visioning plan for a bridge that would connect the park to Gault Street that includes significant stream restoration and stabilization work. 

2022 Tree Champion - Community: Westside Future Fund

Hundreds of trees have been planted in Historic Westside communities of Vine City, English Avenue, Ashview Heights and Atlanta University Center. Westside Future Fund invests in improving broader community access to the benefits of trees, by advocating for and designing projects with green infrastructure benefits that reach the most vulnerable communities. As explained by John Ahmann, President and CEO of Westside Future Fund, “A lot of environmental injustice issues happened in these neighborhoods. Part of what we’re doing, and trees and landscaping is part of that, is rectifying that.”

2022 Tree Champion - Corporate: Georgia Power

Georgia Power’s support for Trees Atlanta spans three decades. As a corporate sponsor and community partner, each year Georgia Power organizes employee volunteer tree planting and care projects, provides valuable expert consultation, connects us to equipment resources, and funds our work to reach more communities. Georgia Power helped Trees Atlanta launch a program to explore green infrastructure solutions to another pressing environmental challenge, stormwater management, and helped to expand the Youth Tree Team, a high school job training and leadership skills program. 

2022 Tree Champion - Individual: Paul Zurawski

Paul Zurawski has served on Trees Atlanta's Board of Directors since 2014. Paul’s encouragement, business relationships, and fundraising helped add some of their most impactful new programs. Paul chaired the recent capital campaign to raise $10 million philanthropically to buy the land and build Trees Atlanta's new HQ in Oakland City and to continue to support tree planting and work along the Atlanta BeltLine. He was instrumental in helping to secure funding from Equifax Foundation to launch the Youth Tree Team.