Here’s to a successful 2016 STIHL Tour des Trees!
The 2016 STIHL Tour des Trees – an annual weeklong cycling adventure and the primary community outreach and engagement event of the TREE Fund – took place October 9-15, 2016, and was an outstanding success on all fronts.
In addition to completing 610 miles through North and South Carolina on a bike (facing hurricane clearing winds from Hurricane Matthew), 96 riders and their support team of 20 shared the TREE Fund mission with people all across the Carolina Piedmont, planted 17 trees, and distributed over 600 books about trees to local schoolchildren. Rider fundraising is currently over $385,000 – a historic high. 100% of this amount will go to tree research, education, or community engagement grants, or to endowed funds which fund tree research in perpetuity, as all Tour expenses were defrayed by TREE Fund Partners.
Many thanks to our riders, support crew, fundraisers, donors, volunteers, Tour Director Paul Wood, TREE Fund Partners, host Southern Chapter ISA, and the wonderful communities throughout the Carolinas for helping make the 2016 ride a success.
Congratulations to our top five Tour fundraisers in 2016:
(amounts as of 11/15/16)
- Dick Rideout: $15, 096
- Frazer Pehmoeller: $12,625
- Jim Edson: $7,895
- Randy Miller: $7,600
- Steve Geist: $6,520
Kudos to Team Bartlett, our #1 fundraising team! Led by captain Frazer Pehmoeller, Team Bartlett raised a whopping $65,159 for the TREE Fund. Running neck-in-neck with Bartlett the entire time was Team Ohio; they brought in an incredible $62,254. Thank you very much to both!
The Tour fundraising campaign continues through December 31, 2016 at stihltourdestrees.org.