Two stories flow together to make this story. The first one concerns a citizen effort to beautify Royal Palm Road in Apache Junction. Royal Palm has a median strip down the center that was planted with palm trees for several blocks but the planting was never completed. That left a long strip of bare median that some considered an eyesore. Some neighbors (including Mayor Jeff Serdy) from a subdivision on Royal Palm Rd. got together to raise funds to plant some native desert trees to complete the median strip in stages as they were able to raise funds. The other story was Rotary International President Ian Riseley's plan to have Rotarians throughout the world plant a tree for each member of their club. Our club accepted the challenge and put new member Warren Salinger in charge.
Someone (AJ City Manager and club Member Bryant Powell?) got the two groups working together with Rotary supplying funds to buy the trees. Warren and the neighbors worked with Liz Langenbach from AJ Parks and Recreation who got the trees planted. They are in a symmetrical pattern - 3 Mesquites followed by 3 Ironwoods followed by 3 Palo Verdes that repeats along the length of the street.
Following our weekly meeting, a delegation of Rotarians and a delegation of neighbors met on the Royal Palm median strip to celebrate the tree planting. We even had a Parks and Rec drone fly over taking pictures.
This was a great project that will leave the environment more beautiful for years to come.