By Bob Groeneveld
.
There may be a heritage apple tree with your name on it, just waiting to be planted by Langley-Aldergrove MP Mark Warawa.
The local MP, along with Langley City and Township, Langley Environmental Partners Society, and others, has been a strong supporter of the Langley Environmental Heroes Awards program from its inception.
The apple tree, coupled with a bronze plaque, will be planted in honour of this year’s Heroes – an individual, a youth (18 and under), and an organization/business – who will be named at as special ceremony in the apple orchard of Fort Langley National Historic Site on June 8.
There will also be $500 donated to the local environmental organization chosen by each category’s winner.
The apple orchard ceremony will be open only to invited guests, but Warawa plans to buy 1,000 tree seedlings, which he will hand out at Home Depot beforehand.
Event manager Jane Pratt, who is daccepting the nominations through Warawa’s office up until the April 19 deadline, said he hands out the seedlings every year.
“This is something that he’s quite proud of,” said Pratt, “to say that he has put 1,000 tree seedlings in his community every year.”
Pratt said the seedlings are “usually trees and shrubs,” adding, “He likes trees with berries or fruit, and buys them from local greenhouses.”
Most years she sees “a half dozen or so” nominations in each of the three categories, but this year she has more nominations in the Individual category than she has seen in the past few years that she has been working on the project.
“But there’s always room for more nominations,” she said, noting that she’d be happy to process more nominations in the Youth and Organization/Business categories, as well.
Pratt said she was always aware that there are “a lot of good people” in Langley, but sifting through the nominations for the Langley Environmental Heroes Awards has driven home to her just how many “remarkable people are doing remarkable things” in the community.
She said she is routinely impressed by all of the nominees, not just the ones who are chosen for final recognition.
Pratt noted the range of environmental activities undertaken by worthy individuals, like “teachers who organize wonderful projects in their classrooms” and seniors who organize recycling projects.
She noted that businesses that include significant recycling or environmental projects within their programs are eligible for the awards, as are students like one who “wanted to put a system in place to deal with plastics.”
The Langley Environmental Hero Awards web page notes that the awards were started in 2006 as “a way to recognize Langley’s grassroots efforts, big and small, to protect the environment.”
“It quickly became clear,” the site, which includes a link for nominations, “that environmental stewardship in Langley is an issue which people are passionate about.”
Consequently, the awards program was expanded to include the current three categories.
Last year’s Heroes were Walnut Grove Secondary student Elysia Park, Nathan Creek fish habitat steward Ted Lightfoot, and the totally olunteer Nicomekl Enhancement Society.