Severson Dells

Hats off to environmentalist Wangari Maathai, United Nations and Africa’s Nobel laureate. She proposed planting a billion trees to help fight climate change and poverty.

While planting a billion trees seems impossible, Maathai says that if one-sixth of the world’s population planted just one tree, the job could be accomplished in a year.

Using that math, the Rockford area is good for a quarter-million trees alone. Wouldn’t that be impressive. That’s what’s possible when work is done at the (no pun intended) grassroots level, when a dreamer’s dream calls for people to take action.
Don Miller, executive education director at Severson Dells, summed up nicely in a Nov. 1 speech at our annual breakfast. He said:

“I read recently in the Orion magazine that stated a pessimist thinks things will never work out no matter what action he or she takes, so they do nothing, an optimist thinks things will work no matter what action they take, so they do nothing.

“But an activist, an activist believes that he or she can make a difference, so they take action. So please be an activist for Severson Dells, the community, the Earth, your actions do count.”