Each year, to celebrate Earth Month, Contech Engineered Solutions offices across the country send their employees out to partner with a local organization for a community service project.  The Irving location first reached out to Keep Irving Beautiful in 2011, and has been partnering with them ever since.  Over the years, they have left their mark in parks facilities all over the city, including paint projects at Jackie Townsell Heritage Center and Lively Pointe Youth Center, cleanups at Trinity View and River Hills Parks, and planting trees at the Mountain Creek Preserve Tree Farm.  This year they returned to the tree farm for another planting project, not in April, as is usually the case, but on the last day of June and the first of July, proving that “Every day is Earth Day at KIB.”  The original plans were sidetracked due to wet conditions at the tree farm, but the Contech employees were determined to complete their project, and they braved the hot weather to do just that.  Contech’s projects are two-day events, so eleven volunteers worked on Thursday, and another fourteen on Friday.  Their combined efforts resulted in 75 hours of service, with 61 native trees planted on June 30 and 68 more on July 1.  The Parks Department Staff not only prepared the location for planting and delivered the trees, but also instructed the volunteers on techniques and assisted them in their efforts.

“As a member of both the Tree Board and the Keep Irving Beautiful Board, I am very happy to see these trees getting planted,” said Irving resident Chuck Kirk. “We had some delays and challenges, but thanks to the Parks staff and two very hard-working groups from Contech, the Tree Farm now has 129 more trees which will one day be used in one of Irving’s parks or public spaces as needed.”

Keep Irving Beautiful is a non-profit, grassroots, leadership organization dedicated to educating our community about litter abatement, recycling, and beautification in order to help preserve the health and promote the social and economic prosperity of our city.  To find out how you can volunteer, go to www.keepirvingbeautiful.org or call the KIB office at 972-721-2175.