In 2021, Monarch Research founder Clark McLeod spoke at the Cedar Rapids Downtown Rotary Club about the need to replenish, restore and replace the damaged tree canopy in Linn County due to the 2020 Derecho. Strategic Financial Solutions President Larry Witzel was in the audience and knew this was a program he could support and offer to his office of 15.
The entire team at Strategic Financial Solutions joined the 2021 Planting Forward initiative since many – if not all – of their employees were affected by the Derecho in one way or another. The program provided up to 25 native Iowa trees to each employee. Monarch Research provided species options, online ordering, planting instructions, and one easy location for pickup.
The SFS team embraced the effort by creating their own ‘Day of Caring’, making shirts with #SFSROOTS on them. They reached out to family and friends that needed trees and went house-to-house helping to plant and water nearly 200 trees! One employee, Barb, had recently retired from SFS, and her home and trees were especially hit hard. Her home was unlivable right after the Derecho. The SFS team joined forces and made Barb their first stop on their planting day to celebrate her and her husband moving back into their home and planting new life in their yard.
The joint effort and ‘all in’ attitude of the Strategic Financial Solutions team is an example of how working together we can achieve great results. SFS will be joining Monarch Research and the Planting Forward initiative again in 2022. There is no telling how far we can reach when we do it together!
Thanks to our Tree Ambassador Jamie Meyers for helping to share this success story!
Photo courtesy of Jamie Meyers