On October 29th, Eco Club volunteered with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful to plant trees. Along with many other volunteers, they put on their gloves and were willing to get down and dirty to help the environment. Lauren Wyatt, the sponsor for Eco Club, talked about a few things that she learned from this tree planting experience, hoping to encourage more students to join in.

First, Wyatt mentioned that she was looking forward to learn how to properly plant trees. Emphasizing that she,“wanted to give students the opportunity to give back to the Indianapolis community.” Wyatt has participated in projects with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful before and has enjoyed them. “What I enjoy most about being a teacher (besides getting to know my kiddos) is getting them involved in volunteer opportunities.”

Along with giving back to the community, tree planting taught her many new things. “It is a much more intense process than I thought”, Wyatt said. “The most interesting thing that I learned was how if a young tree has a ‘circling root’ at its base, it needs to be removed or the tree will actually choke itself and die later on.”

Wyatt also mentions that tree planting had it’s fair share of challenges. “It was a labor intensive process.”, Wyatt said. “For each tree we had to wrestle the tree out of the container, cut away excess dirt from the tree, remove any damaging roots, remove the grass from the area, dig a large hole, and then use a pick ax to break up the first around the tree so the roots can more easily penetrate the soil.” She continues to add that out of the large volunteer group, they would be separated into group of three. Stating that a group of three people would take around three hours to plant five trees.

Although there were challenges, Wyatt says that the outcome is very rewarding. “The members of the community thanked us as they walked and drove by which was rewarding. I also enjoyed getting to eat and hang out with students at Qdoba afterwards”, Wyatt said.

Wyatt recommends volunteering with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful to anyone. Thanks to the volunteers that day, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful was able to plant 30+ trees that day. Their current goal is to plant 100,000 large caliper trees throughout Marion County. With your help, they can reach their goal and you can help give back to the community. If interested, you can check out Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s Calendar to see what upcoming events you can sign up for. http://www.kibi.org/projects/category/projects/

(Join Eco Club by texting @9ce4dg to 81010 and/or join Animal Club by texting @c63dhe to 81010)