Heather Terpstra and her son Bennett.

Thirteen North Shore Bank employees and their family members volunteered for the Urban Ecology Center’s Earth Day of Service on April 23. The group spent the morning cleaning up along the banks of the Milwaukee River.

“One group planted spruce and cedar trees along the riverbank to help keep invasive reed canary grass from spreading. Reed grass does not grow well in shade,” reported East Branch Manager Dane Didier. “Another group removed mustard seed plants along the river. Garlic mustard is a destructive, invasive plant that will take over and crowd out more helpful, native plants. It’s difficult to remove and control, and often takes years of work to fully eradicate from an area. To remove it, we had to dig around the plant and deep enough to remove the tap root. Otherwise, it will just keep coming back if you don’t remove the root.”

Molly Schissler’s husband, Jeff, Ashley Coleman , and Kristin Hoch in the background.

We also set up a table at UEC, with a spin-the-wheel game, a gardening package giveaway, and information about our current checking promotion.

Volunteers were:

• Branch Ops Support Supervisor Ashley Coleman
• Dane Didier and daughter Sophia
• East Personal Banker Cole Heinrich
• Imaging Team Leader Kristin Hoch
• Product Analyst Brandon McCullough and nephew Azon
• Human Resources VP Molly Schissler and husband Jeff
• Shorewood ABMS Heather Terpstra, daughter Amelie, and son Bennett
• Branch Sales and Administration VP Craig Witz

Brandon McCullough and his nephew Azon.

Dane added: “The UEC was impressed by how much we accomplished in the few hours we were there.” Many thanks to everyone who helped out, including DM Cristen Baumann, who helped organize our participation!