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By: Lisa Eckelbecker
Published: Thursday April 16, 2009
Telegram & Gazette
Worcester MA
WORCESTER — The Wal-Mart Foundation has donated $100,000 to support a tree-planting campaign in Worcester and will offer an additional $50,000 in matching funds to encourage other companies to donate.
The money will help the Worcester Tree Initiative, a private nonprofit group, as it seeks to plant thousands of new trees, revive Worcester’s urban forest and educate residents about trees. The campaign is an effort to address the loss of trees to the Asian longhorned beetle, a destructive foreign insect whose discovery last year in Worcester has launched a federal, state and local effort to cut down and destroy infested and vulnerable trees.
“We have a check for $100,000, also a pledge of an additional $50,000 for other companies to step up,” Chris Buchanan, senior manager for government relations and public affairs at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Ark., said at a ceremony at Clark Street School.
The Worcester Tree Initiative is aiming to raise $10,000 each from five companies to tap into the Wal-Mart matching grant, according to Paul Belsito, a coordinator of the initiative. The Wal-Mart Foundation is the charitable arm of Wal-Mart.
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James G. McManus, who works in public relations for Wal-Mart, holds a giant $150,000 check that was presented for the Tree Initiative at the Clark Street School yesterday.
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