It’s no secret that she loves what she does. Jeanmarie Papelian, proud Armenian and Executive Director of Armenia Tree Project (ATP), brings great passion to the organization and is inspired each day to continue to help it flourish. Armenia Tree Project is a non-profit organization with a primary goal of reforesting the rapidly desertifying land of Armenia and promoting environmental education both in Armenia and the diaspora.

This has not always been her day job. Jeanmarie had always wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up. She went to McGill University as an undergrad and right after that she attended law school at Suffolk University. During her time at law school in 1998, a horrible earthquake hit Armenia. This earthquake, coupled with the collapse of the Soviet Union and Armenia’s subsequent independence, as well as the nation’s war with neighboring country Azerbaijan, made for a tragic time for the people of Armenia. Seeing the immense suffering the people of her homeland were facing, she began getting involved with volunteer work to provide humanitarian relief to Armenia.

She got involved with the Armenian Milk Fund, an organization with the goal of providing infant formula to those who could not afford milk due to widespread poverty and the collapsing dairy industry. Over the next 17 years she volunteered with this organization, serving as the chair and helping it grow rapidly and overseeing its absorption into the larger Armenian Missionary Association. Jeanmarie then began getting more involved with the larger organization and served as a member of the board. While committed to these humanitarian nonprofits on a volunteer basis, she was further developing in her law career, moving up to become partner of her firm. She was successful in her practice, but after 21 years at the same firm, she realized that she was having more fun doing her volunteer work than she was at her day job. A large part of her legal career involved handling divorce law. She was working with people at their worst and at a horrible time in their lives, and the job had become taxing. She was ready for a change.

Luckily, she decided at just the right time to make the leap from law to working for the organizations in which she had become so passionately involved. She had heard about Armenia Tree Project through a close friend of hers who was passionate about the organization. Her friend asked her to go visit some of the tree nursery sites on one of her other volunteer based trips to Armenia and report back. She was inspired by this organization, and though she did not get involved then, she continued to keep tabs on the project. When she was ready to make her move away from the harsh world of divorce law, she learned that the director of ATP was retiring, and she let the organization know she was interested. Now she is four years into her work as Executive Director of ATP and inspired everyday by the work she does.

ATP has brought much happiness to Jeanmarie’s life. “People love what we are doing…it brings people so much joy” she says, “even if you ask somebody for money and they say no that always say what you’re doing is so great and they wish they could help.” Her response to nearly every question I asked ended with a beautiful story about her time at ATP. She acknowledged that although fundraising constantly and managing international teams across time zones is taxing, the people she works with and the joy the organization brings to people never cease to inspire her.

One of the best aspects of working with ATP for Jeanmarie is speaking with the next generation of Armenian environmental stewards — the children. ATP works to promote environmental education starting at a young age, and believes that if the nation is to survive, the children of Armenia need to be better stewards of the environment than their parents and grandparents. This includes diasporan students, whom ATP works to bring into closer contact with their counterparts in the homeland. Jeanmarie laughingly recalled one of the annual trips the 5th graders from a local Armenian elementary school make to Armenian in which they spend one of their days planting trees with students at a school in Armenia. The students were amazingly engaged, she remembers. They loved communicating with each other– both groups practicing the other’s language while actively learning what they can do to help the environment of their homeland and fostering meaningful connections.

But these fun interactions with the next generations are not the only things that inspire Jeanmarie. Some of her most powerful stories involved the hardships the people of Armenian have faced and the ways in which ATP has been able to help in a profound way. She has found a deep level of support from members of the recent immigrant community who remember vividly the adversity they endured back in the homeland. After giving a speech about ATP to a local church, she was on her way out when the priest got back up in front. He told the community about how he remembers being a young boy in Armenia and cutting down the trees around his home and in the local park to heat his home and cook food because there was no other option. This story is sadly not a unique one. For years the catastrophic events plaguing the country led to a severe energy crisis which affected huge numbers of Armenians. There was no heat, no hot water, no light, and no way to get power, so for many, the only way to stay alive was to cut down all their trees. Jeanmarie made it clear how moved she is with each new story like this one, and how vital the work she does is.

ATP is much more than just a tree planting organization, and no one understands this better than Jeanmarie. She spoke about a branch of the organization called Backyard Nurseries, a program that provides tree seeds to members of rural villages. The villagers can plant the seeds and care for the trees, and once they reach a large enough size to be relocated, ATP buys them back, providing enough income for the villagers to be able to stay in their homes. ATP employs many people in communities across Armenia through this program as well as those who work in their nurseries and forests, providing vital source of income for many. This income allows men to stay home with their families rather than having to leave the country for work, allows for widows to afford to remain in their homes, and even employs refugees from neighboring countries, allowing them to build new lives.

Jeanmarie calls this “community revitalization” and considers it a vital part of ATP’s mission. More than just planting trees, ATP is turning a new leaf for the Armenian people, inspiring the next generation, bringing communities back together stronger than ever, and above all else, bringing joy.