On Friday, The Field Naturalist Club, and the County Stewardship Network planted 100 trees on the school’s playground. Each class planted 4 or 5 trees with the wonderful help of several volunteers. 

This event was part of the Arbor Week celebrations in the school region. Every child from Kindergarten to grade 8 participated in the tree planting. The trees were planted in two groves: one in the front of the school to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the FNC; and one on the west side of the school as a memorial to Gayle Smith, a school neighbour who loved nature. The students received a lesson on how to plant trees properly and learned about the various species that they planted – silver, sugar and red maples, Kentucky Coffee trees, red oaks and service berry. The students did an outstanding job planting and watering the trees. 

They have taken an enthusiastic ownership of their class trees. Future generations of students and neighbours will appreciate and enjoy the shade these trees will provide and each tree will be the focus of curriculum lessons in Science, Math, Art and Environmentalism.

A special Thank You to Brett Groves who coordinated the tree planting, provided the trees, soil and tools for completing the job. A Big Thank You to retired teacher Ian Nesbitt who brought his dedication to environmentalism and was instrumental in organizing the planting of 100 trees.