Earth Day Weekend: FRIDAY

I am so excited to share the events of my busy weekend with you; these were among some of my first appearances as Miss Earth Maryland, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had an opportunity to be interviewed four times over the weekend, thus giving the pageant, myself and my views on the environment exposure. I also had a chance to meet one of the other delegates from DC and Miss Earth United States. In addition, I had some things to do in the entertainment arena.

FRIDAY: Casey Trees Tree Stewardship!
Friday began early for me. I rose from bed at 7:00 am to prepare for a day of tree stewardship with Casey Trees. Before I got to the event, I assumed that we'd be planting trees; but to my surprise, Casey Trees has been caring for and planting trees in the DC area for some time. I was allowed the opportunity to care for some of the existing trees they had planted in the Georgia Avenue/Petworth area. I was so excited to learn some new things about trees and effective ways to care for them.

After being briefed on what we needed to do

for the trees that day, we split up and went to

work on the trees. When I began, I had no idea what I was doing and worse when the worms began squirming from their wholes I moved away. I was then told by an environmental student from Maryland who was also there to volunteer, that the sight of the worms was positive because it meant the tree was healthy. I was happy to learn that the tree was healthy and I later became comfortable with the worms. After a while, I put down my tool and started pulling the weeds with my hands, like a pro! When my first tree was done, I was more than ready to work on the next ones.

Tree Before Care

Tree After Care

Over the course of the day, we moved to about five different locations--weeding, mulching, and installing ooze tubes for some--walking a couple of blocks between each. We even cared for some trees at the local library before ending at Clark Elementary School, which has been closed for about a year. I was saddened by some of the things that we found on the grounds and playground of that school where I watched some of the neighborhood children play; I prefer not to mention them. I was more than happy to clean the school grounds as some of the others cared for the trees.

I would like to thank Casey Trees and my volunteer leaders for a wonderful experience and I would be more than happy to volunteer at any time in the future. I realized that at least one of the benefits for trees mentioned in my side note (below), reduced stress, worked for me. When the day ended, I didn't want to leave. I had grown to love playing in the dirt, seeing the worms and watering the trees!


If you would like to take advantage of the awesome opportunity and help Mother Earth, you can visit the Casey Trees Web site to see which opportunity may work best for you. http://www.caseytrees.org/

Side Note: You may ask, why care for or plant a tree? If you are asking yourself that question, then you probably are ignorant about the benefits we gain from trees. Trees offer many benefits as listed on the Casey Trees Web site:

• Healthy Air
• Cooling Shade
• Cleaner Water
• Less Crime
• Reduced Stress
• Livable Communities
• Increased Property Values
• Tourism
• Wildlife Habitat
• Trees and Commerce
• Job Opportunities

For more detailed information on those benefits, you can visit the following
link, http://www.caseytrees.org/planting/reasons/tree-benefits/index.php