Schools

Clarke Kids Celebrate Trees by Planting One

Third graders at the Swampscott elementary schools read poems and tossed shovels of dirt on the new tree in their school yard.

 

The town tree warden and a fellow DPW worker pre-dug the hole and planted the 10-foot pear tree long before the Clarke School kids rambled outside Friday morning.

Right before the children ambled into the school yard, the workers pulled dirt from the chanticleer pear for the kids to re-shovel and mound at the foot of the tree.

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First, though, Amy Jalbert and Heidi Legere's third graders, introduced by Principal Lois Longin, paid homage to the pear reading poems on spring and trees.

Anna Nazarenko, Nick De Melo, Aidan Bonner and Enaya Babayeva read from colored paper that flapped in the cold wind.

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Soon the children abandoned their readings and crowded their teachers.

They raised and waved their arms, volunteering to throw dirt around the tree.

"Oh my goodness, everyone wants to get messy," Mrs. Jalbert said.

This was the 23rd or 24th year in a row that the town has planted a tree for Arbor Day on behalf of Tree City USA, said DPW's Gene Gardiner, the tree warden, accompanied by Steve DeFelice.

This tree will have a white flower and fruit the size of a pea, the tree warden said.

Also at the tree celebration was new Town Administrator Thomas Younger.

Thomas read a proclamation from selectmen marking April 27, Arbor and Bird Day in Swampscott.

The proclamation read, in part:

"We realize the benefits derived from trees. Trees help beautify the landscape, purify the air, moderate temperatures, reduce noise pollution, provide windbreaks, reduce runoff and erosion, provide habitat for wildlife, increase property values, and are part of our social fabric."

After the children returned to class, Gene and Steve shoveled the remaining dirt around the tree and staked it, adding stability to its first year in the ground.


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