Good samaritan recognized with tree planting

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Ricky Roy just wants to be kind and help out his neighbors. Trees Lexington says it has a goal of planting a tree in every Lexington-Fayette County Councilmember’s district and letting the councilmember honor or memorialize someone with the tree.

“We decided to plant a tree in honor of the councilpeople with hopes of bringing the awareness to their district, to plant more trees,” says Nancy Barnett, Trees Lexington board of directors.

Councilmember Susan Lamb says she was first made aware of Roy’s neighborhood efforts in 2019 and she knew she wanted to do something to honor him. Lamb says Roy’s neighbors describe him as a “salt-of-the-earth” man who provides great services to them like mowing, raking, shoveling snow and even mowing the flood plain so it can be an enjoyable green space for the neighborhood.

“The reason why I do it is for you know, everybody’s got to go through their life, I come and make it a hobby out of myself,” says Roy. “I kind of do things I have to do myself out here.”

“It’s such an honor to meet you [Saturday] and to thank you for all of your service to this neighborhood,” says Lamb to Roy. “It’s events like this that make me very proud to represent this community.”

Trees Lexington says planting new trees and teaching the community the importance of trees to our lives comes at a great time with trees being cut down by Kentucky Utilities. Trees Lexington says the tree canopy in Lexington is already low, barely reaching 25%.

“One tree in your yard isn’t enough,” says Barnett. “If everybody would step up and [plant trees] it would be wonderful because we do have to mitigate the loss of those trees that we’re going to lose through the clear cutting from KU.”