Local students learn by doing through Legacy Tree Planting program
- ESSEX FREE PRESS
- May 1, 2019
- 2 min read
by Sylene Argent
Last Wednesday, the grade eight and kindergarten students at six area schools took a break from their regular studies to help plant a tree on their school grounds through the Town of Essex’s annual Legacy Tree Planting program.
Essex’s Communities in Bloom committee mascots, Bloomer and Petunia, helped the grade eight and kindergarten students at Colchester North Public School, St. Anthony Catholic Elementary School, École Élémentaire Catholique Sainte-Ursule, Harrow Public School, Holy Name Catholic Elementary School, and Essex Public School to carefully plant a tulip tree on the schoolgrounds as part of the program.
Through the Legacy Tree Planting Program, the grade eight students, who will soon graduate from their elementary school studies, plant a tree in honour of Earth Day. They then present it as a gift to the kindergarten class. The kindergarteners are then expected to take care of the tree for the remainder of their elementary school careers.
On behalf of the Town of Essex, Councillor Kim Verbeek welcomed the youths at Holy Name Catholic Elementary School to their planting event. She told the students in many ways they are like the tree they were helping to plant. The kindergarteners may be smaller, just like a young tree may have few branches and leaves, but they will grow.
“Take care of the tree just like you take care of yourselves, and soon you will be as big and strong as the grade eights,” Verbeek said, adding that with the proper care, the tree will grow to be big and strong, too.
It is hoped this program will instil a sense of environmental awareness and stewardship in the students.
The Town of Essex’s Legacy Tree Planting Program is possible in part due to a $2500 TD Friend of the Environment Grant. Tracy Sanson, who is on this committee’s Board, was pleased to present the donation during the celebration at Holy Name.
Sanson said TD Friends of the Environment has been a sponsor of the Legacy Tree Planting program since its inception in 2014. She noted the TD Friends of the Environment committee was established in 1990, and over those years has contributed $2,067,896 to 581 projects.
The Board continues to support Essex’s Legacy Tree Planting program because its members want to support causes that include youth and enhances their environmental education.
Essex’s Legacy Tree Planting program is unique, Sanson said, as it gets the youth to learn by getting involved in the care of the tree.
