Volunteers plant trees along Jefferson Avenue

Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News

Detroit -- Armed with shovels, rakes and pick axes, about 100 volunteers on Saturday made good on a pledge from a Grosse Pointe family to spruce up Jefferson Avenue.

The family of Jon Cotton, a businessman and Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce member, donated $275,000 to line Jefferson from Alter Road to Interstate 375 with 485 trees. The Greening of Detroit -- a local group dedicated to the reforestation of the city -- is handling the donation and will spend the next four Saturdays busting cement and planting several different species of trees to create a canopy along Jefferson.

"It is going to be beautiful. This area needs the trees," Greening of Detroit board member Sheila O'Hara said Saturday as she helped volunteers plant 62 trees.

Trees will be planted in such a way that people driving down Jefferson will get the impression they are going through a hilly area, said Jill Dohner, Greening of Detroit's operations manager.

"It will be this nice, flowing landscape," she said while moving a hand in a wave-like motion.

Volunteers came from big corporations like PepsiCo, local businesses such as Jack Rabbit Towing and colleges.

Natalie Young and Jackie Richards, student coordinators of the Green at Eastern environmental group at Eastern Michigan University, struggled with Eric Gaabo, a volunteer from Detroit, and Paul Bairley, Greening's director of forestry, to get a tree into a recently dug area on Jefferson near Chalmers.

The crew had to twist the tree to not only get it into the ground properly but to make it stand up straight. The volunteers and visitors joked about resembling the U.S. soldiers planting the flag at Iwo Jima.

"Jefferson is going to look really nice when the trees are all planted," said Gaabo, a 49-year-old Detroiter.

Volunteers made quick work of the trees, often getting them planted in just a few minutes. Doug Sweeney, a 22-year-old Indianapolis resident, helped Nick Rigotti, a 22-year-old Ypsilanti student at Eastern, plant a tree.

Sweeney was in town to help the new Delta Sigma Phi chapter at Eastern get its volunteer projects started. Rigotti is a member of Alpha Phi Omega at Eastern and was pitching in to represent his fraternity and support the environment and the city.

The pair got a tree in the ground and dirt packed around it in just a few minutes before heading off to help another set of volunteers.

"We want to get as many as we can," Rigotti said.

Interested volunteers can send an e-mail to Anthony@greeningofdetroit.com or call (313) 237-8733, ext 239.

sesparza@detnews.com (313) 222-2320