Just under 1,800 Grande Prairie grade one students will be bringing something special home from school on Thursday. Each child was given a seedling to take home and plant in honour of Arbor Day.
The Arbor Day Society in Grande Prairie has been handing out the trees to local students since the 1960s. Alberta Science Network’s Amanda Frayn says they also visit one school a year to plant a special tree at. This year it was Roy Bickell Public School.
“Roy Bickell School is one of the newer schools that we hadn’t reached out to yet and it just worked out that they were able to accommodate a tree this year.”
The biggest thing Frayn wants the students to take away from this event is that planting a tree is something they can do to help the environment.
“We don’t have to leave it up to foresty companies to do this kind of thing. We can take a seedling and plant it in our own community or in our own backyard and take care of it and see what happens in 10 [or] 20 years.”
Arbor Day celebrates the importance of trees and green spaces.