Rofo Families Plant 187 Trees in April

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has been leading a unique pilot program at in which the children were involved in interactive lessons about the importance of trees and how to care for them.

As a result, the families of the children ordered 187 trees to be planted in Royersford in April. The tree distribution was held April 14 at the school.

PHS intends to use this educational model in other schools in Philadelphia and surrounding counties as part of the Plant One Million project.

"We saw that the students learned about the trees and got excited about trees and actually took homework back for their parents to do to find out what the benefits of the trees are from the parents' point of view," said Barley VanClief who led the program for PHS. "Like economic and environmental benefits. The kids learned about the wildlife benefits and things of that nature that may be interesting to them."

This encouraged the families, together, to apply for a free tree, which could be planted in their own yard. More than 100 families participated, came hourly to the school on that Saturday morning, picked up their tree and learned how to plant their tree.

Families had a choice on a variety of trees, both large and small. Most all cases, VanClief said, were able to be complied with via the requests of the families.

The Bard Foundation, which is the local organization that was applied to originally by PHS, recommended Royersford Elementary to pilot the program. VanClief called Principal Teresa Carboy and it was a perfect match.

"She was so excited about having these trees," said VanClief. "She's very much a tree person and environmentalist and majorly supportive. I doubt we'll ever find another school as excited about this as Royersford Elementary has been."

Between first contact and the day the trees were picked up, students and administrators were invited to small assembleys to learn about the Plant One Million Project.

Carboy confirmed her passion and love for the program.

"I think for us at the school, it was a wonderful way to enrich the science curriculum," she said. "And really teach kids about the environment, because we lost our environmental program a little while ago. It was really great not only to do that, but to build relationships with the [PHS] and also the community, who yielded volunteers to come out and help with the trees."

VanClief is excited for the partnership to continue in the future and was thankful of the cooperation of the local school.

"It's just been really a pleasure to do and it's really exciting," VanClief concluded. "We had a lot of fun the day we came in and worked with the kids. They were so excited especially about the fact that their parents had to do homework. They loved that. It's something that we hope the kids will remember."

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society is also holding three energetic Tree Tenders Training sessions nearby, for local residents to learn the basics of tree planting and care, including tree biology, identification, stresses, planting, pruning and root care - and how to use these skills in the community or home landscaping.

The next session nearby is at Green Valleys Association Welkinweir at 1368 Prizer Rd. in Pottstown on Sept. 11, 18 and 26 from 6 - 9 p.m. Residents can register now at http://www.phsonline.org