Rollin’ in Place Finish Line

On Sunday, November 15, 2020, the Tour des Trees: Rollin’ in Place to Benefit TREE Fund campaign concluded with $156,002 (exceeding it’s $150,000 fundraising goal)! These dollars will go a long way in furthering tree research and education in urban forestry and arboriculture, and we are truly grateful to all our participants and partners for making this achievement possible. Congratulations and thank you!
For the first time ever, the Tour des Trees campaign took place in an entirely virtual format. When the difficult decision was made to postpone the in-person 2020 Tour and pivot to a virtual event, we were entering unknown territory. With the announcement of this new format we expected disappointment, but instead we were flooded by support, enthusiasm, and immediate growth. Our participation reached a total of 86 individuals who collectively covered 46,149 virtual miles. The distance and fundraising leaderboards remained competitive throughout the entire campaign, and we are eager to announce and celebrate our winners below!
Top Individual Fundraisers
  1. James Urban, $14,369
  2. Dick Rideout, $12,548
  3. Randy Miller, $6,475
  4. Tom Ordway, $5,600
  5. Joe Lentz, $5,500
  6. Ray Henning, $5,144
  7. Sam Van Maanen, $4,609
  8. Jeff Iles, $4,084
  9. Phil Graham, $3,847
  10. Pete Smith, $3,501
Top Distance Individuals
  1. John Harthoorn, 5,000 mi
  2. Doreen Crenshaw, 3,293 mi
  3. Doug Schoch, 2,650 mi
  4. Paul Wood, 2,360 mi
  5. Laurie Skul, 2,328 mi
  6. Gordon Matassa, 2,156 mi
  7. Dave Staats, 1,752 mi
  8. Randy Miller, 1,473 mi
  9. Kristina Bezanson, 1,416 mi
  10. Jeff McMullen, 1,312 mi
Top Fundraising Teams
  1. Team Ohio, $15,615
  2. Team ASLA, 15,294
  3. Team Wisconsin, $14,686
  4. Team Southern, $12,148
  5. Team Canada, $10,514
  6. Team Rocky Mountain, $9,917
  7. Team Indiana, $6,613
  8. Team Midwestern, $3,501
  9. Team New England, $3,201
  10. Team Mid-Atlantic, $2,805
Top Distance Teams
  1. Team Ohio, 7,546 mi
  2. Team Hungry Wolves, 5,998 mi
  3. Team Rocky Mountain, 3,165 mi
  4. Team New England, 2,818 mi
  5. Team Southern, 2,454 mi
  6. Team Schwab Roppolo, 2,181 mi
  7. Team Penn Del, 1,008 mi
  8. Team Canada, 886 mi
  9. Team Texas, 725 mi
  10. Team ASLA, 681 mi
Tour des Trees has traditionally been TREE Fund’s main community engagement event. Traditionally community engagement was a simple concept: engage with local communities along the Tour des Trees route to share our mission and love of trees. A new virtual campaign made this goal slightly challenging, and this challenge was met with several generous individuals who shared with us their time and gifts to create engagement opportunities during livestream virtual sessions. At various points throughout the campaign we met with Hallie Dozier who led us through multiple guided meditation sessions, Lisa Meranti who instructed multiple yoga sessions, Professor Elwood Pricklethorn (managed by Warren Hoselton) who met with us to talk about the importance of trees and his new book True Tree Crimes, Tour Director Paul Wood, Tour Mechanic Billy Volchko, and Mindfully Mixed’s Renee Volchko who all met with our participants to discuss training, nutrition, and bike tune-up tips, and ACRT’s Renee Bissett and Kevin Jones who hosted our participants for a Halloween themed Trivia Night! Thank you to Hallie, Lisa, Professor Pricklethorn, Paul, Billy, Renee V., Renee B, and Kevin for helping to make this campaign a huge success! Recordings of all livestream sessions are available here.
Finally, a long-standing Tour des Trees tradition is to honor the “Best of Tour” awards! These individuals went above and beyond in displaying the Tour spirit throughout their entire campaigns.
  1. Drain the Swamp Award: Deb Hilbert
  2. Best Social Ambassador Award: Kristina Bezanson
  3. Most Creative Fundraiser Award: Jim Urban
  4. Ultra-Distance Award: John Harthoorn
  5. Most Consistent Award: Doug Schoch
  6. Above and Beyond Award: Laurie Skul
  7. Best Fundraising Photo Award: Paul Wood
  8. Indoor Warrior Award: Gordon Matassa
  9. Best Leader Award: Jeff Iles
  10. Top Virtual Engagement Award: Hallie Dozier, Lisa Meranti, and Kevin Jones

Thank you Tour des Trees Planning and Welcoming Committee Members – we couldn’t have done it without you!

  • Planning Committee: Dana Coelho, Donna Davis, Jon Elliott, Steve Geist, Maggie Harthoorn, Brett Heinrich, Warren Hoselton, Jeff Iles, Jason Jones, Ben Rickenbacker, Don Roppolo, Laurie Skul, Dave Staats, Tom Wolf, Paul Wood
  • Welcoming Committee: Warren Hoselton, Jeff Iles, Don Roppolo, Cindy Schwab, Laurie Skul, Dave Staats, Tom Wolf, Paul Wood
And thank you to ALL of our Rollin’ in Place participants for your hard efforts to make 2020 one for the books. See you next year!