An east-end Barrie tree has seen a lot of causes and love over the years.
And one local resident is hoping to ensure it continues to see many more.
Janet McFarland knows that her 60-foot American elm will be full of fresh new messages this week, but Sunday’s rainfall has dampened the colourful cards adorning it for now.
“The cards and messages are little rained out today, but it is still rather bright-looking,” McFarland told BarrieToday, adding more will appear by the day.
The tree is located at 26 Eugenia St., and is not new to branching out for a cause.
Just before Christmas, some sewer issues had city officials come out near McFarland’s property to investigate. After checking things out, the city wasn’t sure if the tree should stay up or be taken down to make way for a pipe.
McFarland says she's fighting the idea of the tree coming down and, due to the winter weather, no decision has been made yet.
“Technically, the tree is on city property, but it comes over to mine and it is a beautiful, healthy tree,” McFarland said. “I put a sign on it a while back that said not to cut it down and that I was working on a better solution with the city.
“I was afraid someone would come while I was not home and take it down.”
This past International Women’s Day, on March 8, McFarland and a friend had a ceremony by the tree. As part of Tree Sisters, an organization dedicated to combating climate change, McFarland and others wove together belts. The idea of woven belts is that if 10 million women each wove a four-metre belt, combined they could circle the Earth.
“One of the women in the group suggested we attach them together and wrap them around the tree. The hope was that anyone who was supposed to cut it down may think twice when they see what it means to someone else,” said McFarland.
The next cause the big American elm saw was the current health crisis. Wanting to do her part to lift up spirits, McFarland added some cords and rope around the tree and secured a card between the rope and tree, encouraging others to do the same.
“I put a card up in hopes others would see it and it may help them feel positive,” McFarland said. “Then some neighbourhood kids started to add onto it and then others did as well. It is a beautiful community gesture.”
McFarland says COVID-19 has many people nervous, but she tends to be confident about what may lie ahead for society when the crisis is over.
”Well, not just with the tree, but I have seen so many friendly acts as of late,” said McFarland. “I don’t have a crystal ball, but I would say that we have been so good at being kind these last few weeks, why would we not continue that way?
“We have been very cautious about our communication lately; maybe it made us better people when it comes to the feelings of others.”
