COMMUNITY

Tree of encouragement set up by local woman

At the start of December, Jeannie White, a resident in Keizer, set up a small station for members in the community to share their gratitude.

The station included a bucket full of pens and foam snowflakes for people to write down what they are grateful for. They then get to hang their snowflake on a monkey tree that is located at the corner of her street.

Along with the pens and snowflakes, White also included a sign that explained the importance of gratitude.

“There are a lot of people who’ve suffered from depression issues and to recognize gratitude in your life helps with that,” she said.

White also noticed that the people who choose to just read some of the snowflakes instead of writing one still walk away with a smile.

“It helps other people recognize their own gratitude when they see someone else sharing the same thing,” she said.

Over 60 people put a snowflake up on the tree. White will be removing the snowflakes soon, but is planning to do something for the tree again in the future. The tree can be found at the corner of McNary Estates Drive N. and Hogan Drive N.