After a truly joyous week celebrating the utter incrediblness of trees, it’s time for a final drum roll: ddddddddd…
We are absolutely delighted to announce the winners (plural) of our inaugural Trees Are The Key Awareness Week photography competition. Yep, I know, the original plan was for there to be one prize but we had so many wonderful entries and each of the trees had so many endearing features.
The judging panel put the kettle on and made an executive decision. As it was so difficult deciding which single photograph best encapsulated the breathtaking beauty, enduring strength and sheer wonderfulness of trees, we thought we’d have three prizes instead. Each winner will have ten trees planted in their name in Kenya and probably soon, as the seasonal rains are blessing the region and moistening the ground once more, which makes planting a far easier process.
In alphabetical order of surname, the first tree that made us all sigh and smile was from Amy Bale. It shows a pure and simple love for what those trees and that forest mean to her. With a smile a mile wide, her arm embracing the trunk and a message declaring trees being the key to so much more than mitigating climate chaos, it just won our hearts over. My word, what a fabulous place that forest must be to run through!
Secondly, Michael Redrobo snapped this picture and it stopped us all in our tracks. The history locked inside it, the seasons that have all their secrets bound into the inner rings and the style that Mother Nature herself decided to weave into the trunk and branches, won this tree a worthy place in our contest. How I’d love to sit alongside it, drink tea from my flask and just write.
Finally, this fabulous entry from Ivor Smith. The reason this one spoke so loudly to us was because of the resilience this tree showed through challenging seasons with all the elements giving it a run for its money. It stood strong, grew tall and bent gracefully, like a ballet dancer letting the difficulties that beset it, blow over it.
Our heartfelt thanks and congratulations go to everyone who entered – you are all #TreeHeroes in our books.
With your kind assistance, we’ll make this ten times bigger next year and we’ll probably need a dozen judges too! Every tree is a winner for our planet, every last one of them! I hope our awareness week has helped you to see them all in a brighter light.
Thank you for all you do to celebrate them too.
Simon, Tracey and The Team
