AMERICUS — "Let's start at the tornado," says Trish Popwell from her South Lee Street home. She works in Suwanee during the week and comes home to Americus every weekend. She's hoping to be able to live here full-time, but currently she travels the south buying plants for landscaping projects she's involved in.

"We were in Suwanee when the tornado hit. We got so frustrated not being able to find out any information. After we came home and saw the damage to the trees we suffered survivor's guilt," she continued.

The “we” she was speaking of includes her husband, architectural designer John Popwell who now works from his office in the South Lee Street complex that was once the home and piano studio of Elizabeth Cobb. "Miss Elizabeth," as she was fondly called, taught many local citizens to play the piano over almost a half-century from the two front rooms in the now beautifully restored house. Still standing, and untouched by the tornado, are the two old magnolia trees that anchor each side of the brick walkway to the house.

"When we viewed the devastation of the trees in the parks, the street trees and Oak Grove Cemetery, we knew where our best abilities to help be spent," says Trish Popwell referring to the Re-Greening of Americus Project in which she is a key participant along with Chairman Russell Thomas, George Hooks, Barry Blount and others who make up a strong cross-section of the community. Their goal is to restore as many of the trees and shrubs destroyed by the tornado as they can.

Popwell is a landscape project manager and thought that she might be able to help the community by calling in some favors with some of the many landscape vendors in the Atlanta area that she deals with in that capacity, so she started calling around and she got a number of offers of help.

"Of course, the first stage of a project like this is the clean-up, so we had to wait until that had been accomplished," she said. "As time went by I called them back and made sure that they hadn't forgotten their promises."

She was little prepared for the generosity of one particular vendor however.

"This June, the first of June, Bold Springs Tree Farm called and asked me to come to Bold Springs and make my selection of trees for the Re-Greening of Americus Project. He was planning to move his tree farm to 1,200 acres near Hawkinsville and offered us close to 400 trees, literally hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of trees. All we had to do was find a place to store them. Of course we had to move them too. Some of the trees were so large that a flatbed semi-trailer could only hold two at a time."

The Popwells decided to prepare a holding area at their farm in New Era Community complete with a well and a drip watering system. Their holding yard can warehouse the 400 trees and keep them healthy until they can be moved and replanted in their final locations around Americus. This is a big, big project.

"The committee operates strictly on private donations," she continues, "and a very limited budget. The committee allocated a small amount to help offset the cost of freighting the trees from the Monroe -Bold Springs area to Americus. And getting them here is just part of it. Once the truck gets to the farm they have to be unloaded. Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Alexander brought their knuckle-boom loader to the farm and worked unloading trees to 11 at night. I could have never even gotten them off the trailers without their gracious and generous help."

Popwell is originally from the Chipley, Fla., area and her family still lives there. She was raised to appreciate plants and landscaping by her father who got her interested when he started a plant nursery in Chipley, and she is passionate about the subject of helping to restore the trees around town. Additionally, she is unpretentious, thoughtful and well spoken.

"We wouldn't have all the trees at the holding yard now without John Barbour of Bold Springs," she says, "and I invite anyone to drive out Upper River Road east of Americus to the first driveway to the right after you pass Tom Summers Road. That's our farm. It's 4.6 miles from the Upper River Road turnoff. Drive in and follow the driveway until you get to the tree holding yard. Go see this incredible gift to the people of Americus."

Popwell says that Barbour was motivated by his love for trees and plants and that he wanted to help. He is, of course, the landscape designer who designed and implemented the canopy of Athena elms in downtown Atlanta at the High Museum of Art, a project that took three years to complete. There are still many trees waiting to be transported to Americus.

After a short ride to the tree holding yard, Popwell continues, "Moving trees is a complicated and costly process. It involves digging up the tree and wrapping it properly for transportation. Mr. Barbour not only gave us the trees, he dug them up, wrapped them and loaded them on our trucks. He bore the entire expense of this. I can't say enough good about John Barbour."

"The big story now is restoration. If anyone wants to make a donation for this project you can do it through the Sumter Historic Trust. We've had a year and a half to adjust. The Lord has given us a clean slate. It's time for us to get to work. I want everyone to know, that because of John Barbour and Bold Springs Tree Farm's unselfish donation of the trees, they've given us a sense of renewal. Once these trees start going in the excitement will be contagious," Popwell says while standing on the root ball of a large oak tree earmarked for the tree project.

She encourages everyone who is interested in Americus to visit their tree holding yard in New Era to see first-hand what they are doing and the potential for restoration and rebirth that these gifts of trees, time and money has wrought. Trish Popwell is a fine example of a good friend and neighbor. She embodies what we all could be if we tried hard enough. She has vision, knowledge and the courage to follow her heart and the stamina to get things done. She wants to thank everyone else for their help when in reality she and her husband John are doing their part too for the city and the future citizens who will walk the shady streets once again and play in the parks. She's not doing it to be remembered. She's doing it because it needs doing.