MesaNow
City of Mesa News
City of Mesa News
The City of Mesa honored today its dedicated volunteers with a tree planting at Emerald Park. Mesa Mayor John Giles read a proclamation as part of the event commemorating National Volunteer Week, April 16-22. In 2022, Mesa had 6,498 volunteers donate approximately 104,000 hours to strengthen the community and assist its residents.
"We are so fortunate to have many generous, caring people who want to give back to our community through volunteerism," said Mayor John Giles. "We appreciate the contributions of the thousands of volunteers who share their time and talents with the City of Mesa."
Members of Mesa City Council joined volunteers and volunteer coordinators to plant five trees. Examples of past Mesa volunteering events include:
Neighbors Helping Neighbors is a 100 percent volunteer driven program that helps Mesa residents who apply or are nominated for assistance if they are struggling to keep their yards clean, safe and code compliant due to physical or financial limitations. Without volunteers, the program could not function.
Volunteers at Mesa Public Library support the day-to-day needs of shelving, computer desk assistance, collection support, programming and helping patrons with THINKspot equipment. The volunteers also support the library through its online and in person bookstores.
Volunteers at the Mesa Arts Center prepare projects and activities and have a very public role as gallery monitors to help facilitate outreach events.
The five new trees honoring City volunteers at Emerald Park will be counted in Mesa's Trees are Cool initiative, with the goal of planting one million trees in Mesa by 2050. The initiative aims to increase shade across Mesa, lower the urban heat island effect in our neighborhoods and cool our communities during the hot summer months.
"This tree planting makes a great tribute to our volunteers. We know trees positively contribute to our environment, but they also positively impact our neighborhoods," said Councilmember Duff. "Emerald Park has limited trees. Adding these trees to honor our volunteers who have contributed so much to our city is very fitting."
The City has an online system to search for volunteer opportunities based on area of interest, length of time commitment and more. You can access it at mesaaz.gov/volunteer.