Members of the Rotaract Club of Nürtingen, Germany, plant trees in a cleared area last spring.

Dominik Huhndorf

By Dominik Huhndorf, vice president of the Rotaract Club of Nürtingen, Germany

My Rotaract club established a project, Treety of Generations, to motivate clubs around the world to plant trees in cleared areas. In doing so, we show the power of working with Rotary.

We began by finding two partner clubs on different continents who were as passionate about the environment as we were: The Rotaract Club Cumbayá, Ecuador, and Club MOP Vaishnav, India. With this strong alliance, we launched a pilot project. Then we assembled a larger team of volunteers, including members in each of the time zones, who possessed a solid base of knowledge and could promote the project on social media. We met virtually weekly and progressed well.

Our next task was convincing as many Rotaract clubs as possible from all over the world to join. We made weekly appeals using our tagline, “Think globally, plant locally.” We called upon members of Rotaract to help us advance Rotary’s newest cause, protecting the environment.

Even with the pandemic, we were able to motivate volunteers to plant over 1,500 trees. We had two planting seasons spring and autumn this year. After our spring pilot project, we were able to have friends in other countries join us by the end of the year. Not everyone was able to take part in their country due to COVID-19 restrictions. But clubs like the Rotaract Club of Quatre Bornes, Mauritius, and Interact Club of Annie Walsch Memorial School, Sierra Leone, have planted trees and we have a lot more in the works. A district leader in Africa was so inspired by our initiative, he organized a fundraiser where people donated 30 coconut trees. That’s the Rotaract spirit.

We shared everything we were doing on WhatsApp and a LinkedIn page. We published the results of our weekly calls and town hall meetings. On Instagram, we posted pictures and gained 500 followers in three weeks.

We plan on nominating our project for various awards within the Rotary and Rotaract world, which we hope will bring even more exposure, allowing us to expand our number of volunteers and financial support.

You can learn about our initiative on LinkedIn and Instagram. On behalf of my entire club, I would also like to thank the staff at Rotary International’s world headquarters, including Molly Friend and her team, Erika Emerick and Zuhal Sharp, who advised us on how to build our platforms. Thank you for the support in sharing our message. We are eager for our next steps.

Learn more about Rotary’s commitment to protecting the environment