Environmental Club and Garden Club are hosting a Tree-Plenish event on April 30 to coincide with Arbor Day and plant trees within a 30-minutes radius of McHenry.

MCHS, along with other high schools, are taking part in a tree-plenish event to coincide with Arbor Day, an annual tree planting day.
“Tree-Plenish is a non-profit organization that was started by students in Massachusetts who noticed how much paper their school was using,” says Environmental Club advisor Leah Nolan. “They figured out their school had used 300 trees worth of paper. From there, the organization grew what it is today.”

Many other schools have hosted Tree-Plenish events in the past and this year McHenry will host their first.

“At MCHS the Environmental Club and Garden Club will host the event, both students and advisors.” says Nolan, “We also have some assistance from the Tree-Plenish organization as well in planning and preparing for the event.”

Freshman, Gabby Diaz is a student in the Environmental Club who wants to do her part in taking care of the environment and helping her community.

“I just want to learn what I can do and how much I can do so that future generations will have the same chance we have, or better.” says Diaz, “This event is important because all the trees that have been cut down emit CO2 into the atmosphere, so we’re trying to “reverse” it to slow down global warming.”

According to the University of Southern Indiana, about 1 billions trees worth of paper a year are thrown away in the U.S.

“Since July of 2017, teachers at MCHS have printed or copied about 20,469,972 pages. This is equivalent to about 1,555 trees!” states Nolan, “Our goal is to put some of these trees back on the Earth and to help the environment by doing so.”

Anyone can participate in this event and purchase one of the three tree saplings — Eastern Redbud, Northern Red Oak, or Bald Cypress — for $5 apiece. They can be purchased on the Tree-Plenish website.

“The event happens in a few phases,” says Nolan, “First, students, parents, community members, and teachers purchase trees to be planted at their homes. Second, we recruit student volunteers to plant these trees. Finally, the trees arrive so that we can send out student volunteers to plant them. People may also pick up their sapling and plant it themselves.”

Students, staff, and community members will plant these trees within a 30-minute radius of the school on April 30. The event will take place at Upper Campus. Volunteers are still needed to plant trees and can sign up at MCHS’s Tree-Plenish website.