Some environmentally-minded students at Saucon Valley High School are partnering with the nonprofit organization Tree-Plenish to help make the area a little greener while offseting their school’s use of paper products.
At noon on Saturday, April 30, the members of the SVHS Environmental Club will begin planting saplings in the yards of local residents as part of a Community Tree-Planting event. The students’ goal is to plant at least 440 trees that day, which they estimate will offset the use of approximately 4.4 million sheets of paper.
The saplings the club is currently selling are $5 each (plus a small processing fee) and may be ordered via an online form. The three available species of tree are Flowering Dogwood, Paper Birch and Sugar Maple, and anyone who orders a tree can choose to pick it up at the school if they prefer.
Those who opt to have the students plant their trees will have the opportunity to tell them where to plant them on their property, teacher-advisor Amber Sams said.
“Most people who signed up are picking the trees up themselves,” she added.
According to the order form, pickup is required by anyone who lives more than 30 minutes away from the school, which is located in Lower Saucon Township.
Tree-Plenish is a student-led 501(c)(3) organization striving to build sustainable communities through youth engagement, according to a news release about the event.
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“Throughout the year, students have been working hard to plan this tree-planting event,” it said. “They calculated how much paper the school uses during an academic year and converted the amount into a number of trees. The students are marketing their event to their local community and are looking for residents to order saplings for their property.”
In addition to requesting trees, community members can also volunteer to help with the planting via the online form.
“Together with students from Saucon, Tree-Plenish hopes to drive Hellertown towards a sustainable future,” the news release said.
A video about the project was also produced by the students and posted on YouTube.
The deadline to place an order for a sapling or saplings is March 30.
For more information about the event, email am********@sv********.org.
