Earlier this year, Juniors Nekeisha Matta ( a resident in the Grange) and Sammi Tomlinson

worked together to establish an afterschool club called TreePlenish, dedicated to planting trees to help improve the environment.

   TreePlenish recruits volunteers from their high school and other schools to help source funding to buy saplings and plant them. Because they use 3 different kinds of saplings, all of which are native to Virginia, they plant in areas where all three can thrive successfully. 

Though it is an Independence High School organization, you don’t need to go there to be able to volunteer!   They also work with other high schools in Loudoun County such as Potomac Falls, Briar Woods, Loudoun Valley, Woodgrove, and Loudoun County High School. The meetings usually ask people to find or donators, but with such an influx of people, they might go virtual to make it easier for everyone. 

The age group for the group is geared towards high schoolers, but they might expand to middle school students in the future, as no outside experience is needed to volunteer. They have a sponsor named Mr. Noah Bourlett, who will demonstrate how to plant the trees to any volunteers who need help.

Just like any new volunteer organization, there are great parts to it, but also many struggles in the building process. While creating the club, the most difficult part was to find sponsors. Because the organizers are high schoolers, many organizations they solicited for sponsorship did not take them seriously, and often looked down on them for being so young. But the hard work was worth it!

Members loved the first tree-planting event held this spring on April 20. The organizers were thrilled that 75 high school students attended!  They were able to make an impact to help the environment, by planting more trees for the world to enjoy.  Club members planted three different types of trees, called Yellow Poplar, Red Maple, and River Birch, all of which you can find anywhere in Virginia. The easiest tree to plant is the Red Maple, which was their most commonly planted tree. Though it isn’t too much harder to plant, the Yellow Polar has larger roots, so members had to dig deeper holes.

 When trees are still saplings, coverage is needed to help protect them. With younger trees, tubes or covers are often used when planting so animals don’t eat them.  Unfortunately, TreePlenish couldn’t raise enough funding for that during this round of planting. So instead, they had to find a safe area where the saplings wouldn’t get eaten by deer or any other wildlife.

In conclusion, TreePlenish is a growing organization with plans to make the world a better place and to be able to bring many people together while doing so. They intend on growing bigger, and getting more sponsors and donations, so they can continue to grow and plant trees. They will be holding many events, so if you ever have any free time try to check out when the next one will be, and volunteer to help!

For more information about TreePlenish and to volunteer for an event, visit  www.TreePlenish.com.