Trees with Meaning

How a ReClaim Clairton Ambassador is adding a personal touch to the Montour Trail

Meet Sue, one of the ReClaim Clairton Ambassadors participating in the 2016-2017 cohort. Sue loves her home in Clairton and was excited to have an opportunity to give back. Our partnership with Sue began last fall when GTECH was recruiting for the Ambassador Cohort.

During her interview, we immediately appreciated Sue’s passion for Clairton. She has a bubbly and outgoing personality with an infectious excitement for the topic at hand. She came to the meeting ready with several projects in mind making her a perfect fit for the Ambassador program.

Sue has an impressive memory of Clairton’s history and a love for sharing it with people. With this passion, she began to design her Ambassador project, Memorial Lane. Her vision was to plant dedication trees along the newly renovated Montour Trail entrance at the corner of Mendelsohn and State St. in Clairton. She also wanted to help block the view to the newly constructed sewage plant just a few hundred feet away. Her goal was to plant 50 Dogwood trees along the trail and install a large flower planting bed. Each tree can be purchased by a resident of Clairton and dedicated to a lost loved one. The funds raised from the tree sales go directly towards the maintenance of the site and dedication placards to commemorate their friend or family member.

For Sue’s first workday, we partnered with U. S. Steel to help with the bulk of the planting. In one day, we were able to nearly finish the project installation! The amazing team of volunteers managed to install over 75 plants on Sue’s site which was an amazing feat. Over 50 of these plants were large trees. U. S. Steel was gracious enough to share some of their tools like the motorized auger to make digging the tree pits much easier. After a long, hard workday, we were able to step back and enjoy the beautiful trail entrance!

We are so excited for the success of Sue’s project! Thus far, she has received many requests from residents to purchase and dedicate a tree. Once all the trees are spoken for, Sue will have the memorial placards installed. If you are interested in purchasing a tree or volunteering with Sue, please contact GTECH at 412 361 2099 or [email protected].