More than 1,200 fourth graders in the Tacoma Public Schools will receive a tree to take home and plant thanks to MilePost Credit Union in Tacoma and the Fourth Grade Foresters USA project. Representatives of the credit union visited Lister and McKinley elementary schools on Wednesday, April 8, to hand out the tree seedlings on Washington’s Arbor Day.
Fourth graders at the following schools will benefit from Milepost Credit Union’s sponsorship of the Fourth Grade Forester project: Birney, Blix, Boze, Bryant, Delong, Fawcett, Lowell, Lister, Lyon, Mann, McCarver, McKinley, Reed, Roosevelt, Sheridan and Whitman elementary schools. The students will become members of the Fourth Grade Foresters USA project (www.fourthgradeforestersusa.com). The project goal is to help revitalize observation of Arbor Day in America’s schools.
“Milepost Credit Union has been part of the Tacoma community for more than 56 years, and we are strongly committed to preserving the unique Washington environment in which our members and employees are so privileged to live,” said Jan Smillie, vice president of Marketing at MilePost Credit Union. “We were excited to learn about the Fourth Grade Foresters project, which combines our passion for the environment with our enthusiasm for educating future generations.”
Fourth Grade Foresters USA was created to provide a simple and inexpensive way for any individual, business or organization to send fourth-grade students at an elementary school of their choice home with a tree of their own to plant and care for. Each fourth grader receives an individually packaged 12” to 18” evergreen tree seedling sealed in a polybag by workers with disabilities. Each package will include planting and care instructions and the name of its sponsor.
“This project is made possible because community businesses like MilePost Credit Union cover the cost of each of the individually packaged evergreen trees, so that there is no cost to the students, the teachers, the school or the taxpayer,” said Debra Ersch, co-founder of the project. “It’s a great way for business people, organizations, government agencies and individuals to show their support for the community, education and the environment.”
Now in the era of global warming and air pollution, tree planting is even more important than ever. Trees take carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere to help reduce warming and clean the air people breathe. Planting trees is a simple, inexpensive and easy way to address the problem. For more information about the Fourth Grade Foresters USA Project, please call 402.475.5631 or visit the www.fourthgradeforestersusa.com Web site.
About Fourth Grade Foresters
The trees are packaged in workshops that employ adults with disabilities through the Free Trees and Plants project. Started in February 2004, the www.freetreesandplants.com project obtains from growers and nurseries some of the millions of unsold plants that are destroyed each year, hires workers with disabilities to package them and then sends the plants to anyone who orders them at www.freetreesandplants.com. Consumers simply pay for processing and shipping costs.