By: Victoria Sanchez

“I pretty much just threw a dart at a map and it landed here.” Sitting in the backroom surrounded by boxes and planting supplies, Becca Snowdale shares why she left Florida to move to Oregon and how she found the organization she now calls home. Snowdale has been volunteering for the non-profit Friends of Trees for two years, planting trees to improve the surrounding air and water quality. Snowdale is now the tree outreach assistant for Friends of Trees. “I feel like I have changed completely,” she said, since she left Florida. The positive impact of the organization fills Snowdale with a sense of fulfillment she was unable to gain in journalism.

Snowdale graduated with a degree in journalism from Flagler College in Florida. “What sparked my passion for writing and journalism was the stories that I was reading in National Geographic,” she said. She admired the importance of the stories in the magazine, whether they were about different cultures, the environment or activism. However, journalism felt constricting to Snowdale as it only offered the opportunity to discuss activism rather than take part. Overtime, Snowdale found herself unable to feed her passion, “I just got stuck being a bartender in this state that caters to tourism and consumerism. It’s constantly industrializing itself when it had so much natural beauty to begin with,” Snowdale said. Snowdale knew she was developing a strong passion for the environment, but Florida lacked the opportunity to create change in the hands-on way Snowdale desired. She needed a drastic change to help achieve the life of activism she longed for.

“There was always the same woman in the same seat playing the same slots every night. She was like a permanent instalment.” Snowdale remembered bumping into the woman, “She looked up at me and she’s like ‘watch it,’ and it was like looking into a mirror.” Snowdale realized, “If I don’t leave yesterday, I’m going to be her tomorrow. I have got to go.”

Snowdale, with enough money to last her a few months, and the hope of new opportunities, left Florida and drove across the country for five days. “I just wanted something super different and I figured if I drove far enough I would find it, and I did,” Snowdale said. Taylor Glass, a fellow co-worker of Snowdale said, “[Becca] is super into trees like all of us, and she was looking for something more, so she did an internship with us and that was fantastic.” Friends of Trees gave Snowdale the opportunity for the hands-on activism she had been searching for. “I figured instead of writing and saying stuff that’s important, I would do it instead.”

Snowdale is inspired every day through the work she does. She doesn’t see herself leaving anytime soon. Looking forward, she is excited about the upcoming tree plantings in Springfield. The organization continues to build a community that is centered around a common goal of environmental sustainability, “And I am really thankful to be a part of that.”