On April 10th, 2014, TA
Lowery Elementary School’s students and staff members
planted 16 trees on the school campus. It was a warm, sunny
day and everyone enjoyed spending time outdoors. There were
150 students and 7 staff members that participated in the
project. The other volunteers on that day included 2 PTO
member, 8 Izaak Walton League members, and Beth Brent with
the Elks Run Watershed Group.
CTree Liaison Tanner Haid and some of
the volunteers started arriving at the school around 8:00am.
The first order of business was to pull the trailer with the
trees and materials out of the gated playground area. The
trees and materials were delivered by members of the Izaak
Walton League the night before the planting. Then the trees
and materials were distributed to the various planting
locations on campus. The scheduled classes of students then
referred to the tree facts they had previously learned from
Molly Barkman about the important of planting trees and the
parts of a tree. Tanner Haid and the volunteers gave the
students instructions on the correct way to plant trees and
the proper way to take care for them. Students were then
involved in a hands on experience of getting to plant their
own trees. This continued throughout the entire school day
with the different classes of students. The Izaak Walton
League members then stakes and mulched all of the trees. It
was a pleasant, fun-filled day with a warm community
atmosphere. At the end of the day, the newly planted trees
gave the school campus a stunningly beautiful landscape.
You can see a video of the tree planting at
http://www.elksrunwatershed.org/lowery/#!/-1/ - click on
the photo when you go to the link.
A note from Project Leader, teacher
Marsha Young:
“Planting day was my favorite part of
this project. The students were excited about the project
and gained a respect about caring for their environment.
Their interactions with the adult volunteers also gave the
students a sense of community.”