UVALDE, TX — An Arizona-based plant nursery donated over twenty trees to the Uvalde, Texas community, one for each of the lives lost in the May school shooting.
Long before Shawn Cox was the general manager of Arizona Wholesale Growers, he learned a thing or two from his predecessors on how to grow deep roots.
Not only in the ground but in the community he serves. Those old bosses of his were his parents.
“My parents were very big about community service and giving back,” he said.
So, when tragedy struck more than 900 miles away in Uvalde, Texas, like so many others the father of three elementary-age kids looked to help.
“You just go down that road like, what would I do? How would I feel?” he said sharing his reaction to the tragic news.
Even before the Texas city became home to one of deadliest school shootings in the country, Shawn had been buying and selling from a desert plant nursery in Uvalde.
This week, one of Shawn's trucks that makes a regular trip to Texas headed east on I-10 and donated 21 oak trees - one for each of the victims killed at Robb Elementary.
Details are still being worked out on where the oak trees will be planted at, and if they will be set at the resting place for the victims - most of them eleven years old or younger.
“It's a great tree for Arizona, it's a great tree for Texas,” he said.
Shawn branched out to South Texas himself.
“Doesn't matter if there in Arizona or somewhere else in the world they're thinking of people here in Uvalde,” he said in an interview with ABC15’s sister station in San Antonio, KSAT .
When deciding what to donate to a grieving community, Shawn picked one of the strongest trees you can put in the ground.
The Oak trees can last 100 years or more spanning generations. They can attract wildlife like squirrels, the shade provides a micro-cooling climate and can create a space of serenity.
It won't be long before someone sits in the shade under one these newly planted oaks and perhaps finds a moment of peace.
Shawn hopes whoever does - can always return to a tree with deep roots.
“There are far more people in this world that want to do good and they want to contribute to the community than anybody who wants to take away from it,” he said.
