The Best Time to Plant a Tree is Twenty Years Ago. The Next Best Time to Plant A Tree is Today.
Chinese Proverb
85 Tomorrows Are Planted by Littleton Rotarians with a Little Help from Their Friends to Celebrate Earth Day
Beginning Sunday with 12 Crabapple Trees, continuing with 22 “Big” trees on Sterne Parkway near Littles Creek Park and wrapping up with 51 trees of 16 varieties on the Campus of Options Middle School and Secondary Program, one tree for each Rotarian is now Rooted in Littleton.
Littleton Rotarians share a connection with local trees. It was a Littleton Rotarian who had the original idea for the Crabapple Trail. And this year Rotary International President Ian Risely has made it his mission to try to have as many trees as there are Rotarians planted all over the world. Hint: that’s more than 1.2 million.
Rotarians did not do this alone. They had a huge hand from the City of Littleton, specifically David Flaig and his intrepid crew who helped with the 51 trees on the school site. David was able to apply a generous grant from Xcel Energy to cover the cost of the trees. South Suburban Parks and Recreation planted the “Big” trees near Littles Creek Park, and the Crabapple Foundation added 12 new trees to the family of Crabapples gracing the streets of Littleton.
Able bodied students from Options Secondary Program and Middle School helped dig deeper holes and ferry mulch to the far-flung trees at the edges of the school grounds. With their help the final 51 took less than two hours to plant from start to finish. Teachers were on hand to ensure that a few lessons were learned as the trees were settled into their new homes.
It was only fitting that the sun would be replaced by rain/snow to help settle the new trees into the soil and their forever homes. Undaunted the Rotary Club is already looking ahead to next year’s Earth Day.