Many years ago, my wife and I started saving spare pocket change in a coffee can, figuring we'd have some beer money to play with every so often.
One day, two houses ago, when we were first married we had a small backyard in need of a shade tree. "How can we afford the couple hundred bucks for a tree and planting?" we thought. "Wait, let's use the spare change in the coffee can!" We did just that and there's a beautiful elm tree standing proud 23 years later at our first home in Lombard.
That was actually the birth of our Tree Fund. Spare change still goes in the can but it's no longer used for beer money. Since 1995, we've planted Redbud, Locust, and Ash trees at our homes as well as a Burning Bush and some Arborvitaes along the way. Tis amazing what one can do with a little spare change!
