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Stories of Impact: TreesCharlotte

By Mandy Ravin, TreesCharlotte

Trees are the unsung heroes of our city. They make our lives healthier and happier and are proven to reduce stress, improve social inequities, increase property values, and lower heating and cooling costs. You may see them every day without giving them much thought. Yet the team at TreesCharlotte thinks of these miracles of nature every day as they work to grow, diversify, steward, and educate about our city’s iconic urban forest.

Through programming like TreeDay plantings at schools, parks, places of faith, nonprofits, neighborhoods, apartments, and greenways, TreeCare events at past planting sites, and TreeAdoption events where Charlotte residents can receive free trees for their own yards, TreesCharlotte is ensuring Charlotte’s iconic urban forest continues to be the signature natural asset of our city.

Each event they hold includes an educational component, and a key tenant of their work involves creating social justice aimed to increase tree canopy in specific areas so that all residents can reap the benefits of a green and healthy Charlotte. Thanks to funding from Women’s Impact Fund, TreesCharlotte continues these initiatives to ensure the growth, health, and survival of our canopy.

Since its founding in 2012, TreesCharlotte has planted and distributed 60,556 trees. But as Charlotte expands and grows, so does the need for planting more trees. TreesCharlotte’s planting season takes place from late September through March. Upcoming events to note include Long Creek Greenway Phase II TreeDay, where they will plant 90 trees on Wednesday, February 12, and the South Zip Code TreeAdoption on Saturday, January 25 or the West Zip Code TreeAdoption on Saturday, February 22, when residents in specific Zip Codes can register to pick up free trees.

WIF members are invited to volunteer at events, which can be found on the TreesCharlotte event calendar, https://treescharlotte.org/calendar/.

Apart from volunteering and donating to TreesCharlotte, WIF members can also take action by signing the Charlotte Without Trees? pledge on the website which highlights small steps, such as removing invasive ivy, adding mulch, or planting new trees or a pollinator garden, that we can each do to protect our trees and enhance Charlotte’s canopy. What better New Year’s resolution than to commit to helping the trees that do so much for us?

  

(Photos from WIF October Lunch & Learn with TreesCharlotte and Catawba Riverkeepers)

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Janet LaBar

Executive Director​
jlabar@womensimpactfund.org

With more than 25 years of experience, Janet has a proven track record of leading organizations and teams in developing strategies that foster thriving communities. Her career is dedicated to the well-being of the places she serves, and the people and businesses within them, positioning her as a trusted sounding board, critical thinker, and purposeful protagonist across corporate, government, education, entrepreneurial, and civic spheres.
Janet joined Women’s Impact Fund in June 2025 to guide one of Charlotte’s most respected, women-led philanthropic organizations into its next phase of growth and impact. In partnership with the Women’s Impact Fund team, Board, Advisors, members, volunteers, and key community partners, she will continue strengthening communities by maximizing women’s leadership in philanthropy through collective giving, education, and engagement.
Inspired by her family, teams who dare greatly, and people and communities striving to be their best selves, Janet’s impactful career includes leadership roles as President and CEO of Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, President and CEO of Greater Portland Inc, and Chief Performance Officer of Greater Phoenix Economic Council. As a first-generation Filipino American, her lived experience deeply informs her professional drive to create equitable economic growth and opportunity in the metro areas she’s served.
She holds a BA in Communication Arts from the University of West Florida and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Phoenix. Janet and her husband James are proud parents to an older daughter, and a daughter and son who are twins.