Planting trees for the future

Stephensville Elementary School first-grade teacher Georgia Landry made it possible for the school to receive a $550 grant from Growing Up Fit Together to plant fruit trees. GUFT is a program in which Stephensville has been participating. It promotes physical fitness in and out of the classrooms. With the money GUFT awarded, Landry bought different varieties of Satsumas, tangerines, kumquats and Challenger melon trees which are now situated in the school yard. Although GUFT is a program primarily for grades one through three, Landry has established a team of students and teachers in all grades who helped plant the trees, and whose responsibility it will be to nurture the trees—weeding, watering, feeding— especially when they are just beginning to develop root systems. The goal of the project is to eventually allow students to pick healthy fruit from their own trees in their own school yard, rather than eat sugary snacks. Landry’s grant summary included these words. “We believe our students will embrace the opportunity to participate in this project and will be able to have ownership in the final outcome. We believe the students will enjoy eating the fruits of their own labor. This project is going to excite and promote students to start looking at healthy choices rather than unhealthy ones.”