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Community Corner

Men's Club Auction Benefits Tree Program in Huntington Woods

Saturday's popular fundraiser/social event has sold out for the second year, which helps boost its 2012 capital improvement donation to help maintain the city's character.

The notion of civic pride seems like an antiquated luxury in America today, unless of course you happen to live in a town like Huntington Woods — where July’s Independence Day parade could only be eclipsed in popularity by this Saturday’s Men’s Club Service Auction.

The Men’s Club Auction, as it’s referred to in “the Woods,” marks its 31st year on Saturday and, as a testament to its draw, has sold out for the second straight year. regularly draws several hundred attendees, with a majority of the proceeds donated to the city for capital improvements.

This year’s auction project, or theme, will help re-establish the city’s annual tree maintenance program, which has been operating on a shoestring budget for the last several years due to the invasive Emerald Ash Borer parasite combined with an anemic economy and three summers of extensive road repairs.

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“Trees are a really important part of the community from both a natural resource and value standpoint,” says Alex Cooper, a Men’s Club member and longtime Huntington Woods resident. “Because of the Ash Borer epidemic, the city had to channel a lot of resources to removing dead ash trees and the funds this year will help re-establish the tree maintenance program and let it continue on for many years.”

Part silent and public auction, part social mixer, the auction has become big business over the years. While club members and their wives still bring in homemade finger foods and baked goods, local eateries now also have a presence, such as Zumba Mexican Grille, Noodles & Company and Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar.

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Held at the , the event has become the hottest ticket in town now that it’s sold out. Cooper said the $15 cost per ticket was part of the reason attendance has been strong the last few years.

“At $15 per person, the price is artificially low,” he said explaining the event’s popular allure. “But, given the economy and where things are at, we wanted to make the event accessible to as many people as possible — plus it’s a gigantic social event.”

Auction items range from gift certificates for local businesses, artwork and guitar lessons to an African safari, riding a city fire truck in the annual 4th of July parade, a kitchen renovation and a Detroit Tigers experience.

While all attendees will surely have fun, and some will go home winners of auction prizes, the biggest winner is likely the city and its residents. Since 1984, when the Men’s Club donated the playground structure at Peasley Park, annual donations to the city for capital improvements have left Men’s Club fingerprints on nearly every corner of Huntington Woods.

Rob Weed, one of this year’s event co-chairs, said the re-establishment of the tree maintenance program is a gift that helps city residents and the arbor-rich environment that has worn the “Tree City USA” label from the Arbor Day Foundation for more than 25 years.

“There’s never a lack of community support for the things that help continue to make Huntington Woods a great place,” Weed said. “When the city approached us and said they needed this, and how far behind the tree trimming had fallen, it just made sense.”

In fact, normally the city maintains a very robust tree maintenance program that operates on five-year cycles, according to Claire Galed, liaison for the Tree Advisory Board. Each year, 20 percent of the city’s trees could expect to be trimmed, but budget cuts that have forced the city to place emphasis on emergencies, meaning many trees are still waiting for their trim more than five years later.

“With the generous gift by the Men’s Club, we will be able to do a complete citywide tree trimming at once instead of trying to play catch-up over the course of years,” Galed said. “Without that there could be some trees that would not get trimmed for 15 years.”

Galed described how the city’s budget was just blindsided by the invasive Ash Borer’s quick-kill of hundreds of trees in such a short period of time, unlike Dutch Elm Disease, which swept through the city in the 1950s and ’60s but progressed very slowly.

After the program reboot, the city would have the funds to maintain its yearly 20 percent trim rate, which amount to about $12,500 annually, Galed said. The cost of the one-time, citywide tree trimming: about $60,000.

"It’s been very sad for us because Huntington Woods has traditionally had a wonderful program of maintaining our trees,” Galed said. “This was a wonderful opportunity and we were thrilled that this is something the Men’s Club could do. We really appreciate it.”

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