Prayer and Planting: Tree of Hope Project Takes Root

By: Martina Reese, Communications and Marketing Assistant

Along the south edge of campus between Lindemann Hall and Augusta Boulevard stands a small grove of young trees. The two amur maples have dropped their bright fall foliage; a few dried whirligigs still clinging to the branches quake in the breeze. The cornelian cherry dogwood, well past the season when it bears its clusters of red fruit, will burst forth with yellow blooms in late winter. Each tree is identified by a small engraved “Tree of Hope” marker, staked into the earth, indicating the date on which it was planted.

Concordia-Chicago’s Tree of Hope annual planting ceremony is held on the last Friday in April, timed to coincide with Sexual Assault Awareness Month and National Arbor Day. During the ceremony, attendees gather around a deep hole previously excavated by physical plant staff to receive the new tree. As people arrive, they are given a small slip of paper and pencil, on which they are invited to write down their private thoughts and hopes about ending sexual violence. While the paper is not shared with anyone, some participants report that they choose to write about a personal experience, while others express their hopes for the healing of others.

Tree of Hope is a joint project between Concordia University Chicago and Pillars Community Health, a community-based, nonprofit provider of health and social services that serves clients across the state of Illinois. Pillars Community Health has long supported the University community through awareness-building activities about domestic violence, sexual assault and unhealthy relationships, as well as advocacy services for individuals affected by such violence. By working together on this initiative, the organizations hope to promote increased awareness of sexual violence through open dialogue and support of a zerotolerance environment on campus.

“The Tree of Hope ceremony is one of several awareness and prevention activities at Concordia-Chicago,” explains former CUC Title IX coordinator Kathe Heetel, who has been instrumental in organizing the ceremony from its inception. “We recognize … that these things don’t happen overnight.”

Established in 2017, the program will plant a fifth tree in the spring of 2023 (planting was suspended during the pandemic). During each ceremony, a representative from Pillars Community Health shares a reading, typically a letter or poem from a survivor of sexual violence, with the goal of conveying the often abstract idea of abuse through the real words of a human being. Those in attendance toss their folded slips of paper into the hole and the tree is lowered on top. They then spill cups of dirt into the hole, both burying the messages and positioning them as a support for future growth.

“The symbolic concept is that these paper slips of hope will strengthen the roots of the tree so it will prosper,” explains Heetel. “In a similar way, we share the hope that people experiencing sexual violence will have strong ‘roots’ of empowerment to prosper.”