Earth Day is coming up this Friday and Arbor Day is the week after, in celebration of the two holidays a local grocery store is helping youngsters learn the importance of trees.
The Perry Hy-Vee is donating a free tree to each 5th grader at Perry Elementary and St. Patrick’s Catholic School.
Events and Community Involvement Coordinator Larry Vodenik says the children are encouraged to plant the seedlings in their own yards to watch them grow but some don’t have the opportunity to do so.
“There are a lot of people that live in a trailer court, or they don’t have a place that they can plant a tree, maybe they live in an apartment or something like that. So I went to the City because I know about the (Emerald) Ash Borer situation and we’re losing trees and the said ‘Yes, as a matter of fact we have a little nursery out at the brownfields (area) where we’re growing trees.”
So any student that doesn’t have a place to plant their own tree can donate it to the City and it will be planted in the new nursery until it’s big enough to be moved to an area park to replace an ash tree.
The Perry Public Works and Parks and Recreation Departments started work on the nursery Monday, loading and hauling mulch to begin the project.