Showing Up!
- Team Canopy
- Apr 2
- 6 min read
Why does one decide to volunteer, to dedicate their time to make things better? For some, this is part of who they are, likely resonating from behavior witnessed as they grew up. For others, perhaps the inspiration came from a single moment, discovering or recognizing a need unfulfilled. And others may see it as a form of responsibility. President John F. Kennedy said, “every person can make a difference, and every person should try.”
No matter where the motivation comes from, it has been determined over and over again that our efforts to make situations, other peoples' lives or our lived environment better, in turn, makes our lives better. It gives us more energy, connection and a sense of purpose.
In Jennifer Breheney Wallace's wonderful new book titled Mattering, she presents a pathway to a life of deep connection and purpose, which of course, includes volunteering. To build off the JFK quote, she makes it clear that responsibility is much different than obligation. She says, "obligation comes from the Latin obligare—to bind. It implies duty without choice. Responsibility, by contrast, comes from respondere—to respond. It is grounded in agency." Responsibility says "you can" and feels like an invitation. Through steady acts of meaningful responsibility, we become essential to our community around us. We matter. She says it is a simple equation:
To add value = Find a need in the world + Apply your strengths
The work that we do here at CanopyBloomington could not be accomplished without a robust team of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers. In 2025, 300 volunteers helped us plant 256 native nursery trees in seven Bloomington neighborhoods and on the campuses of five schools and three non-profit organizations.
Volunteers also serve as board members, grant-writers, ambassadors at public events and educators for our summer programming. Volunteers are the heart and engine that drive Canopy to make "make a difference and add value" here in Bloomington—"to matter."
Team Canopy asked two of our volunteer board members to talk about their own personal relationships to volunteering. Here is what we found out:
Amy Roche
I joined the Canopy Bloomington Board of Directors in the fall of 2025 and last month I had the pleasure of participating for the second time in one of the neighborhood tree plantings our staff coordinates every spring and autumn. The morning of this particular planting day started out in the bracing low 30’s, but I layered up and got out in it to further our mission: To engage the Bloomington community in planting and caring for our urban forest together, in order to build a resilient and equitably green city for all. What a treat and inspiration it was to stand with sixty other Bloomington folk, from those who literally started the organization to ones who are two or three years into it, and lots who were there for the first time, intent on planting sixty-five trees in Bloomington’s Walnut Woods neighborhood. It didn’t hurt that our Outreach Director, Jon Vickers, had hot coffee on hand as usual!
Planting trees gets my heart pumping! By noon, I had shed three layers and was enjoying the sun on my skin and the breeze in my hair. In the era of gym memberships, a structured session of exercise with no fees attached is a gift. Shoveling out wells in the ground, moving sizable trees into those holes, filling and towing carts of mulch, I got heavy lifting and impact exercise—both increasingly important for maintaining muscle mass and bone density in my second half of life. It’s so nice to get to take care of myself while simultaneously investing in supporting the local ecosystem and providing some cooling shade for future generations in our town.
I get the warm fuzzies! I love working in pairs at an event like this because of the space to go deeper into a conversation with one person. On this day, I moved carts of mulch to each of our team’s tree sites with an IU undergraduate student and we reminisced about childhood memories we both have of swimming in the Chicago beach of Lake Michigan. It felt like our talking gave momentum to the collaborative work, something that happens to feed my hope and hands-on experience of social functionality. Working with new people, I develop my flexibility in problem-solving by sorting out tasks with folks I don't know yet. Inevitably, another’s approach to work benevolently disrupts my ‘routinized’ thinking, leaving me wiser for it.
I did a thing! The neighborhood planting day gave me the experience of accomplishment in getting in action, not just talking about change I want to see. By participating in my community, I deepened my relationship to the world around me just a bit more. And as a board member, it makes me feel more honest asking others to join or support Canopy Bloomington having gotten my hands dirty with it. See you at the next planting day?
Ash Phelps
I volunteer at Canopy for many reasons. The first is my intense passion and curiosity for trees as living beings. I get excited by the physical act of planting and teaching others how to do it well. It's fun to get dirty, meet new people, and get exercise.
In the long term, I want to watch the trees we plant grow, develop, and contribute to making Bloomington a better place. I see Bloomington as fairly unique in our region, in that it feels more forested and wild than most towns in Indiana. My hope is we can slow the canopy loss we've been experiencing over the last few decades from development, poor urban soil conditions, encroaching exotic pest and diseases, and changing climate patterns. The more people we can share our mission with, the better environment my grandkids are likely to have decades from now.
I love seeing people come together to try to make life a little better for everyone. Our world is so full of chaos and tough times, it's nice to be able to meet up with others and spread my love for trees and enjoy the process of making our town a better place.
Come join us! CanopyBloomington has a few more plantings yet this spring. Our plantings are fun and rewarding. The impact you make in these neighborhoods will be reflected right back to you, filling your heart with purpose.
Amy Roche
It’s Amy Roche’s love of nature and the plant world that draws her to service with Canopy Bloomington. Her 40-years in Bloomington have been marked by work in environmental issues, starting with her position at Indiana University Student Association (IUSA) as president of IU’s chapter of the nationwide Student Environment Action Coalition (SEAC). She was a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard (BCO) where she and IU Professor Ross Gay developed and co-taught two years of monthly adult classes in the planting and caring of fruit trees in partnership with the City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department. She was also an outreach leader for the organization, coordinating and speaking at events, leading BCO site tours for children and adults, and developing the organization’s Partner Planting Program. She now enjoys life as a cottage industry baker and garden consultant.
Ash Phelps
In addition to being a Canopy board member, Ashton Phelps served as an Infantryman and Combat Marksmanship Instructor in the United States Marine Corps. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Public Affairs (BSPA) with a focus on Environmental Management from the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. Following university, Ashton pursued a career in arboriculture, becoming an ISA Certified Arborist and obtaining the ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ). He has worked as a climbing arborist for Davey Tree Service in Indianapolis, at Indiana University in Bloomington, and is currently working as a sales arborist for Bluestone Tree Service.
CanopyBloomington
CanopyBloomington is a social impact organization created to maximize Bloomington's tree canopy and sustainably manage Bloomington's urban forest for trees' many environmental, health, economic, and social benefits, with a focus on tree equity and community engagement. The staff, board and volunteers work year-round to plant and care for trees, improve air and water quality, and make neighborhoods healthier and more beautiful. But we can’t do it alone.
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