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The Town of Small Point-Broad Cove-Blackhead-Adam’s Cove was ravaged by multiple wildfires last summer, but it may soon look a little greener — thanks to a couple from the Codroy Valley who donated over 450 trees to the community.
Last week, Harrison Bragg and his wife Judy Warren, who are closing their nursery business, packed up thousands of trees and drove a full day to Conception Bay North to hand them out.
“We understood how these people must feel to lose everything, and we just felt like we wanted to help, and we didn’t know any other way to do it,” Warren told CBC Radio’s On The Go.
However, there was one bump in the road.
Bragg and Warren had to wait seven hours on the road, after a vehicle accident on the Trans-Canada highway halted traffic.
The delay meant they arrived on the north shore very late and couldn’t find accommodations. But that didn’t deter the couple, who decided to hunker down and sleep in their truck.
The next day, the town made a post on Facebook, a meet-up spot was set up, and community members flocked to pick up the trees.
Bragg said it was “heartwarming” to see the community so happy.
“Judy got a lot of hugs,” he said. “It was good to see all the trees disappearing and people asking how to plant, what to plant and what’s the best ones.”
Warren said she was touched by the stories that she heard from residents, including one woman who lost her whole garden to the fires.
“She was starting to plan out how she was going to replace all her trees. And she must have hugged me half a dozen times,” she said.
Warren said she also heard from people that there are plans to bring students together to replant cedars near the school.
She said the whole ordeal was “an experience of a lifetime.”
“They were so interested and they were in a good mood and you could feel the love,” she said. “And also their love for their community.”
Bragg estimates that the trees would have been sold for almost $9,000.
Small Point-Broad Cove-Blackhead-Adam’s Cove Mayor Curtis Delaney said he was thankful for Bragg and Warren’s donation.
“The generosity and the kindness goes far beyond the trees,” he said. “They were thinking of us out here and the devastation we went through last year … there was a lot of happy people here on the shore this past weekend.”
Bragg said he also has plans to send two to three thousand seeds to the community next summer so they can plant even more trees.
“We didn’t want no recognition for this here. We just wanted to get the trees down to you people,” he said. “We’ll turn it green again.”
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