Date: Fri 25-Apr-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

schools-Earth-Day-St-Rose

Full Text:

St Rose Planting Project Celebrates Earth Day

After the "Monsignor Birch" dedicated to Msgr Birge was planted beside the St

Rose entrance walk, Msgr Birge and school principal Donna DeLuca (back row,

center) joined the children for a group photo.

-Bee Photos, Evans

Working in teams, the second and third graders raked leaves and cleaned up

around the school grounds. Shown above, Amanda Koller (left) and Ciara Simek

rake, while Timothy Boncek, Jack Quinn and Michael Murphy fill the

wheelbarrow.

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

They came bearing shovels.

And trowels and rakes and hoes and wheel barrows and a pick ax and even a snow

shovel.

It was Tuesday, April 22, Earth Day XXVII.

To mark the occasion, the students, teachers and staff at St Rose School spent

the entire afternoon outside, planting dozens of trees and shrubs and

beautifying the school grounds and planters with hundreds of pansies.

"This was more work than I thought it would be!" said Newtown landscape

contractor Ray Gallagher, panting slightly as he leaned on his shovel.

Mr Gallagher took only a brief pause from his labors helping the eighth

graders plant six-foot Crimson King maple trees at the back corners of the

school playing field.

"You might want to make a little trench here for the water. That looks nice

and straight now," he told some sixth and seventh graders, who were setting

out small dogwoods in a long line interspersed with the maples.

They loosely tied the pliable, young trunks to upright posts for stability.

A good number of Kousa dogwood trees, birch and maple trees - as well as pink

azaleas and dozens of pansy flats - were donated by Gallagher Lawnscape,

Lexington Gardens and Burr Farm Gardens for the St Rose Earth Day planting

project.

"An anonymous benefactor gave tree seedlings to the kids last year to plant

for Earth Day," School Principal Donna DeLuca said.

"But we weren't sure whether they really knew where to plant them when they

got home, or why they were doing it. This year, we decided to put the entire

Earth Day effort onto the school property," she said.

It was, she added, a "great lesson" in working together to make the school

more beautiful. Then, to maintain what they had planted and watch it grow.

Before the trees were put into the ground, Monsignor Birge blessed them.

A special clump white birch was chosen for planting beside the front entrance

walk and the students promptly dedicated it to Monsignor Birge, naming it the

"Monsignor Birch."

As the teachers and students dug holes and planted trees, the younger children

raked up leaves and debris from the school foundation plantings and set out

the colorful pansies in oak planters.

Everybody lugged water.

Behind the parish hall, computer teacher Patricia O'Keefe manned the garden

hose, filling dozens of waste baskets that were then taken up by the students.

Sloshing slightly but fired with enthusiasm, the students carried the water to

wherever it was needed.

They felt proud of all they had accomplished this Earth Day, and nobody minded

getting a little wet and dirty.