There’s plenty of green open space at Elmhurst Elementary School in Ventura. But, the school yard – until today, had very few trees.
Now, it has fifteen trees…which the students here have all named and taken part in celebrating.
As well as inspiring them to appreciate nature, the trees will make a huge difference for the students, says school principal Deanna Baczek.
"It's outstanding. The school has been here over 60 years and over the years sometimes we lose trees," she explained.
"Being able to plant trees that are a little more developed so that they will provide shade like this one is already providing some shade. We have a very large yard at our school. We also have a lot of areas where we don't have trees. And you know, we need to have our open areas so that we can play soccer and our various activities. But we also need to be able to provide shade for the students. And we also have classes that study birds and do a lot of birdwatching. So the more trees and shrubs we have, the more birds and critters we have," said Baczek.
It’s taken two years to get the idea to the point of planting, after a grant from non-profit ReLeaf, Southern California Edison and CalFire made it possible. Barbara Brown is from ReLeaf.
"Our goal is to add to the urban canopy of Ventura in any way we can. And this is our very first school tree planting, and we've been trying for two years. And finally everything lined up and we were able to plant 15 trees," said Brown.
And the kids here? Well…they dig them!
