Lincoln, Neb. (December 14, 2012) – Lafayette, Indiana, resident Gregory Shaner was the first place grand prize winner for the Arbor Day Foundation's recent Volunteer Center contest, with a total of 86 hours of conservation-oriented volunteering.
David Ruyak of Reading, Pennsylvania, was the second place winner with 48 volunteer hours, and Charline Bridgeman of Evansville, Indiana, was third place with 19 volunteer hours.
Through support from Toyota and an innovative partnership with VolunteerMatch.org, the Volunteer Center at arbordaynow.org offers an interactive and easy-to-use database for locating conservation-oriented volunteering opportunities in all 50 states. Participants who registered on the website and tracked their volunteering hours in the system during the months of October and November were eligible for the contest.
Shaner volunteered with Tree Lafayette and the Indiana Urban Forest Council, Ruyak volunteered with Camp Serranova, Inc., and the Reading Shade Tree Commission and Bridgeman volunteered with Hartman's Arboretum.
The winners also received a Nook HD or iPod touch and Barnes and Noble gift certificate of varying amounts, and had between 25 and 75 trees planted in their honor as part of the Foundation's Trees in Celebration program. Random weekly winners were selected during the length of the contest to receive arbordaynow.org t-shirts.
In April, 50,000 online voters used the Volunteer Center to select five Tree Campus USA schools as winners in a contest for $1,000 to plant trees and recruit new volunteers.
More information on the Volunteer Center is available at arbordaynow.org/volunteer.
About the Arbor Day Foundation: The Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit conservation and education organization of one million members, with the mission to inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees. More information on the Foundation and its programs can be found at arborday.org, or by visiting us on Facebook, Twitter or our blog.