Brian Spade and Curtis Daniels never graduated high school and frequently ended up in trouble. But these days, the 20-year-olds are older and wiser.
While participating in a program that helps disadvantaged youths earn their GEDs, gain job skills and get involved in the community, the Youngstown duo started working Saturdays picking up trash and planting trees with Treez Please in the historic Brier Hill neighborhood, which had been ravaged by blighted homes and vacant lots.
But the V&M Star mill is undergoing a $650 million expansion in the area, which sparked the push for a green transformation along state Route 422 to the edge of Youngstown’s central business district. It involved the demolition of 14 vacant homes visible from the highway and the removal of an ugly chain-link fence and lots of trash.
Treez Please remade the cleared property into low-growth meadows with plantings of wild-flowers and native trees.
“I thought, If a 20-year-old who was running the streets could join in helping the neighborhood, anyone could,” Spade says. “The people of Treez Please were so happy about giving back to the community and making it look beautiful. It made me want to do these things to make the area more appealing.”
Treez Please has been instrumental in replacing blighted property with green areas. Those life-filled spots represent the direction Youngstown is heading.
“Our goal is to help with the reforestation of Youngstown in as many places as we can,” says Jean Engle, co-president of Treez Please. “That means vacant lots or people’s yards.”
So far, the group has planted approximately 100 trees and wants to educate residents on their importance.
“Trees help with heating and cooling bills,” Engle says. “And property values always rise when there are trees on the lot.”
This year, Treez Please has targeted two large areas, visible daily by an estimated 9,000 cars.
“We want to create something that is visibly pleasing and has a function for the neighborhood,” says Debora Flora, executive director of Lien Forward Ohio, a partner on the projects.
Maybe that’s what clicked with Spade and Daniels on those Saturdays preparing the soil, planting seeds and scattering hay.
“I never thought Youngstown could be changed,” Spade says. “But they installed a sense of hope in me that the city is going to get better little by little.”
“We have not given up on our community,” Daniels adds. “And neither should anyone else.”