How will you Do Good?

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Picture this: 25 eager volunteers, total strangers, get on a charter bus driven by another total stranger. They blast music, play games, and get to know each other on the bus, all the while having no idea where the bus is taking them. They’ve all signed up to volunteer for a local service project, but their destination is a secret until they arrive.

After a half hour bus ride, these 25 volunteers pulled up at Pigeon Point Park yesterday where Lizzie, Amy P., Philip and I were eagerly awaiting their arrival. As they got off the bus, we explained that they were standing next to the largest forest in Seattle, the West Duwamish Greenbelt. Although many of them were from the local area, some of them had come as far as Iowa to participate in this mystery service project. Their project for the day was to plant native trees and plants behind the Pathfinder K-8 School
adjacent to the forest. Here’s a list of what we planted:

Salal  –  (Gaultheria shallon)
Spruce  –  (Picea spp.)
Wild strawberry  –  (Fragaria virginiana)
Douglas fir  –  (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
Snowberry  –  (Symphoricarpos albus)
Oregon grape  –  (Mahonia aquifolium)

We’d been planning this day for months. Back in August, the folks at the Do Good Bus called us to say they were coming our way. The Bus was going on tour with indie-pop band Foster the People, and they wanted to engage local volunteers in a service project at every stop. The only catch, and perhaps the coolest part, is that the volunteers who sign up have no idea where they’re going until they get there. It’s a genius idea.

Everyone had a great time, and we managed to get a total of 167 plants in the ground in two and half hours. Local singer-songwriter Sheldon Botler brought his guitar and played some tunes for us while we worked, and after the planting was done we made terrariums with leftover strawberry plants.

The folks with the Do Good Bus have a simple message: “How will you do good?” We hope all of you can answer that question for yourselves and find your own way to give back to your community. Thanks so much to the Do Good Bus, Foster the People, and all of you awesome volunteers!

Photos & Links

Our Facebook gallery (29 photos)
Seattle Times (9 photos)
Article in the Seattle Times
Foster the People
Do Good Bus
Sheldon Botler on Reverbnation.com