A partnership between the City of Lethbridge and Black Velvet Distilling Company led to 40 trees being planted in Palliser Park on the north side. Heaven Hill Distilleries, which owns Black Velvet donated $6,000 to the and had volunteers help plant the new trees in the park beside its facility.
“It’s part of a sustainability project that corporately we are doing. As a part of Heaven Hill, we are extremely proud to have the investment into our community. We feel like it’s an investment into all of us,” said Claude Bilodeau, vice president and general manager of Black Velvet.
The company had 44 people volunteer on Sept. 9, alongside city workers to get the trees in the ground.
“It’s a huge day for the city. We are always trying to expand our tree canopy and trying to find corporate partners to work with to expand our urban forest so when Heaven Hill and Black Velvet stepped up and asked to be a partner with us in this tree planting initiative, we jumped all over it,” said Chris Witkowski, City of Lethbridge parks planning manager.
Witkowski added he hopes other companies see the donation and step up to partner with the city to help improve the urban forest.