On June 8th, 14 PRESENCE coworkers spent the morning volunteering at Washington Park arboretum in Seattle, Washington. The arboretum sits on the east bank of Lake Washington, adjacent to the University of Washington. Diverse and beautiful in its foliage and forest, it is a popular destination point for hundreds of visitors every day, a place for walking, running, cycling, sight-seeing and just relaxing.
Roy, one of the master gardeners, tested our resolve this year by assigning us the job of clearing a hilly patch of ivy that had been overgrown for several months. Thankfully, typically rainy Seattle gave us a quiet but soothingly overcast morning for the task. After a few hours of pulling, digging, slipping, hauling and of course snacking, Roy confirmed we had accumulated over 10 square yards of ivy and various other weeds. An unexpected motivation came from park visitors walking by voicing appreciation and gratefulness for our clean-up efforts.
The arboretum is 230 acres maintained by no more than 11 gardeners and mostly volunteers. It was a great opportunity to give back to our beautiful northwest, enjoy some physical activity while engaging in quality connections with one another. This is the second year we’ve joined Roy at the arboretum and dare I say, we’ll look forward to joining him again next year.
Those in attendance: Terri Steiner, Ayn Quan, Krista Smith, Nia Sao, Kari Dodson, Britana Buppinghouse, Jesse Hanenburg, Ashley Yohn, Sheri Yohn, Jenny Throm, Sasha Higashi, Tonja Otey, Andi Hendricks.
