Last week our Co-founder Mary McLaughlin took the stage at TEDxWilmette to deliver her talk, “The Giving Tree: Planting Hope, Growing Dignity.” She was one of six women speaking at the “Especially Now” edition. Getting there took about six months of intensive preparation!
In Mary’s own words, “Training for a TEDx talk takes about six months. Then you get to stand on the stage with every word committed to memory and tell the story that is so important to you.”
Her story started with a single conversation with a farmer in Jamaica. He couldn’t escape the cycle of poverty. She decided to fix this problem! With Mary’s perseverance, Trees That Feed Foundation so far has planted more than half a million trees in over 22 countries, helping thousands of farmers, and delivering over 400,000,000 meals.
It was an emotional, inspiring story. By the end of her talk many audience members had tears in their eyes. Everyone stood for a long round of applause.
This photo shows Mary with Mike, her admiring husband, after the show.
Here is Mary with Karyn Pettigrew, her lead coach. Thanks go to her, the entire TEDxWilmette team, and also Lynn Kelso, Rachel Olchowka and many others for their advice and support throughout.
We’ll share the official video when it comes out in a week or two.
