Onondaga Earth Corps Celebrates its 15th Anniversary

Onondaga Earth Corps (OEC) celebrates a milestone of planting 10,000 trees in the City of Syracuse during its 15th anniversary and annual fundraising event, “Earth Corps- Encore.” The event will be held Nov. 9th from 5:00PM to 9:00PM at Saint Lucy’s Auditorium, 421 Gifford Street, Syracuse, NY 13204. 

State Senator Rachel May will attend and make a proclamation at Earth Corps- Encore, acknowledging Earth Corps’ 15 years of service to the community and to recognize the great work done by the Youth, Young Adult, and Advanced Young Adult Crews of OEC.

The fundraiser brings together employees, family members, and supporters to recognize the organization’s accomplishments. This program includes food and drink from local restaurants, music by The Brownskin Band with Joe Driscoll, games by the Syracuse Trivia Company, and personal stories from OEC crew and staff members on how this program has affected their life.

Mr. Eli MacDonald founded OEC in 2004 with funding from the Gifford Foundation. His goal was to provide Syracuse’s inner-city youth with hands-on environmental experiences as well as personal and career development. 

Since its inception OEC has employed over 250 inner-city youth. OEC continues to grow, planting over 2,000 trees, maintaining over 20 green spaces in Syracuse, and employing over 40 youth this year alone. Some graduates of the program have pursued continued education in environmental science and forestry. 

The mission of OEC is to empower youth to be active participants in their community and their environment. Crew members work on personal development by partaking in individual and collaborative communication, setting goals, and public speaking. All of this is done outside of the daily fieldwork which includes tree planting/pruning, invasive species removal, community outreach, air quality monitoring and more.

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Registration tickets can be purchased $70/person at www.onondagaearthcorps.org/donate

or at the door. For more details contact Yvonne Chu at ychu@onondagaearthcorps.org