Buffalo Rising Online

Oct 18th 2008, 12:01am By buffalorising

We ran into Kevin Cunningham of KC Fitness yesterday at SPoT Coffee. Up until now, Kevin had only been legend to us, while Re-Tree WNY has been a constant focus for the last few years.

Today, Cunningham explained his new involvement with Re-Tree along with giving so many good reasons to attend their fund-raiser at the First Presbetarian Church tonight.

"Where else can you stroll around in an EB Green-designed building with a glass of wine, in the company of good people, listening to good music, eating good food and knowing that every cent of your $30 dollars is going to planting trees?" Kevin asked. "Hmm?"

He had us there...

Cunningham has been involved in tree-planting since 1997 with an effort known as Buffalo Green Fund, but this adopted Buffalonian has been researching trees in the area since 1984--long before any freak ice storms made the rest of us so painfully aware that green remediation efforts needed to begin.

"On the day before the storm hit," Cunningham states, "we were already down at least 20,000 trees from our heyday."

Cunningham said he threw his own tree-planting party two years ago, and of the $31,000 raised, the party cost a mere $1,400.

"I used to pay to have trees planted at $250 apiece, but Re-Tree uses bare root trees, which run about $100 each," Cunningham explained. "Plus, ball and burlap trees take about three guys to move. These go in by themselves," said the owner of KC Fitness.

Re-Tree plants all over Erie County according to Cunningham, who used to plant from Allen to Forest and Linwood to Richmond only. "I like these folks at Re-Tree. These guys jump, and it's so much community working together.

"I came here in '83 to go to college and made it my home. The summer after my freshman year, I went home to New York City and an old Irish lady in my neighborhood asked, 'How are Buffalo's trees?' She said she'd visited every major city, lived in Buffalo, and was amazed by the quantity and size of the trees here," Cunningham said. He started researching his neighbors claims as soon as he returned.

Around '96 when he got really involved and started planting in earnest, Cunningham says we were losing about 1,000 trees per year. Through Buffalo Green Fund and Beth Blum, Cunningham, along with neighborhood groups and block clubs, started getting matching grants and planting on city property. "Beth said, 'I think the city will take notice.' They did," Cunningham said, "It's so easy to have impact. You clean, you plant, you see what happens. We can't agree on everything--the bridge, the casino--but we can agree on trees. A nice environment is self-perpetuating."

WHO: Re-Tree WNY
Stanford & Judith Lipsey
David J. Colligan
Congresswoman Louise Slaughter
Congressman Brian Higgins
Mayor Byron Brown
Assemblyman Sam Hoyt
Gerri Lyons, Pastor
Kevin Cunningham, Host

WHAT: Party for the trees gets started at 6PM with food from 20 of WNY’s finest restaurants, beer, wine, and music from two live bands. Tours will take place of the historic, EB Green-designed church. A Chinese auction will take place. Pictures and exhibits of Western New York trees will be shown.

Honorees include The Buffalo News publisher Stanford Lipsey and wife Judith, who launched The Buffalo News Green Leaf campaign, netting the inaugural funding for Re-Tree WNY. Founding Co-Chairman David J. Colligan of Watson Bennett LLP and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Buffalo Olmsted Conservancy will also be honored.

HOSTED BY: Party is hosted for the ninth year by Kevin Cunningham of KC’s Fitness.

WHERE: First Presbyterian Church of Buffalo
1 Symphony Circle
Buffalo, NY 14201

WHEN: SATURDAY, October 18, 2008 (TONIGHT!)
6pm-?
Brief awards ceremony begins at 7:30PM in side chapel of Church

Check www.re-treewny.org for more information.

Paul Maurer is Chairman of Re-Tree WNY