Established 2006 as Hike for KaTREEna.
It all began with a response to a storm.
19 years later, the mission remains.
NOLA Tree Project transforms lives and communities through tree plantings & community service projects.
Programs:
BIG TREESY GIVEAWAY
New Orleans residents receive free trees to plant on their properties. We host approximately 5 tree giveaway events per year throughout the Orleans parish districts.
URBAN FORESTRY
From December to March, NOLA Tree Project plants a variety of trees throughout the Greater New Orleans region in public green space to help beautify and address environmental issues.
NOLA TREE PROJECT LEADERSHIP
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Connie Uddo, Executive Director of NOLA Tree Project, has been on the front lines of disaster recovery since Hurricane Katrina in 2006. She spearheaded the recovery of the Lakeview and Gentilly neighborhoods of New Orleans as Executive Director of St. Paul’s Homecoming Center.
With lessons learned during the New Orleans recovery, Connie brought her experience to similar disasters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, New York, and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Harvey, and Hurricane Ida. Floods in Baton Rouge and tornado damage in New Orleans East continued to bring Connie’s expertise to communities in need.
In 2011, Monique Pilie, founder of Hike for KaTREEna, turned the organization over to Connie. Hike for KaTREENa was an organization founded to replant the 100,000 trees lost during the storm. In 2015, at the 10 year anniversary of Katrina, Connie changed the name to NOLA Tree Project. NOLA Tree Project continued to the replant, and expanded into developing and planting community and schoolyard orchards as well. Connie has coordinated over 100,000 volunteers, replanted and given away approximately 73,000 trees, and has helped thousands of New Orleans residents rebuild their shattered homes and lives. She has won numerous awards, testified at two US Senate Hearings, has been featured on NBC Nightly News “Making a Difference” with Brian Williams and CBS Sunday Morning “New Orleans After Katrina: A Tale of Two Cities”. She has also been featured on the ABC Secret Millionaire TV Show where Hike for KaTREEna was awarded $40,000 for her work, and featured in the PBS documentary “Katrina Ten Years After: A Second Life a Second Chance”. Connie has been a guest speaker to many groups, corporations and organizations throughout the country.
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Mark Uddo, Chief Administrator of the NOLA Tree Project, is a professional chef who has prepared and provided over 90,000 meals to volunteers and disaster victims. He and Connie opened their home post-Katrina as Lakeview’s first recovery center which soon evolved into the St. Paul’s Homecoming Center. He started the Harrison Avenue Marketplace in 2008 in a flooded strip mall to create a gathering place and respite with food, beverages, music and vendors to generate and restore economic activity to Lakeview’s commercial corridor. It is still going strong today. In 2007, he received the Distinguished Alumnus award from the University of New Orleans. Later, he was given Legend status as a Best Chef of Louisiana. More recently, he was selected as the 2015 Role Model by the Young Leadership Council of New Orleans. He continues to participate in providing meals to victims of disasters and volunteers helping in their recoveries from the Far Rockaways in New York, to Baton Rouge & Denham Springs, Louisiana, and now Houston, Texas.
Board of Directors
John Carriere, President
Jill A. Gautreaux, Secretary
Brittany Whitsell, Treasurer
Matthew Treuting
MaryBeth Guarisco, Vice-President
Ellie Glennon