Groups assists Lions Club with tree removal project

By Jacob Sturm
news@mustangpaper.com

The Mustang Lions Club got some much needed help as it inches closer toward the next steps
of one of its projects meant to benefit the Mustang community.

That help came in the form of R&B Trees Trees Trees and Share and Care Releaf, who were out
at the Lions Club removing trees to make way for the installation of an ADA Fishing Dock. Rob
Estes, the President of the Mustang Lions Club, said he talked to Ben Martin (Executive
Director/Arborist for Share & Care Releaf) to get the ball rolling on the project.

“Ben from R&B Trees came out,” Estes said. “We talked… Being a veteran himself, the vision
caught fire with him. He sent me a bid, and then I told him our financial situation.”

Estes and Martin chatted back and forth over the course of a few weeks, and eventually Martin
told Estes he would come out with a team and remove the trees and do stump grinding to
make way for the sidewalk and fishing dock project.

“When we showed up and went through all the work and started talking about the cost, he
(Estes) expressed what they were doing and why as far as the fishing dock and just improving
the local Lions Club, I knew it would be a great fit for my nonprofit Share & Care Releaf,” Martin
said.

Martin said the group had some fundraising money left over from a different project that went
into the bill. He also referenced R&B Trees as donating the time and labor at no cost to the
Lions Club.

That work is not lost on Estes.

“The bottom line is, it reaffirms that people want to help,” Estes said. “(And) that people in
Oklahoma, and in Mustang and worldwide, want to do something for others.”

Martin is from Mustang, but has been working with groups across the state on projects with the
Share & Care Releaf. He said he definitely wants to be able to go and help the area he was born
and raised in, and saw the project as a great way to do just that.

With the help of both groups on the tree removal, Estes hopes the plans for the ADA dock
project could be done in a year’s time.

Estes said he will be keeping the City of Mustang informed on everything they do at the
location. He said if the club needs a permit to excavate or put the dock in the planned place, he
would get it.

“The Lions Club is here to work with the city,” Estes said. “The Lions Club is here to make life
better… If we can serve in this aspect, by allowing anybody that’s handicapped the ability to go
fishing safely, that’s what we want.”