LHS student club striving for sustainability
By Chuck Gibson
LOVELAND, OH (March 15, 2022) – The Loveland High School (LHS) Environmental Club in partnering with Tree-Plenish, an organization with a mission to offset paper use with the planting of tree saplings for sustainability
The Redbud is one of the tree options for planting (Provided)
The students of the LHS Environmental Club have chosen to partner with Tree-Plenish as one of their service projects for this year. They are on a mission to encourage sustainability with the planting of tree saplings to offset paper use in the schools. Beyza Ozbudak joined the environmental club as a freshman and now, as a junior is part of the leadership for the club.
“Our community is already pretty green,” said Beyza. “We wanted to have an event to add more greenery to it. We thought about planting trees.”
They found the organization called Tree-Plenish that works with schools to help plant trees at people’s houses for only about $5 per sapling.
“We thought, this is perfect,” Beyza explained. “We are now working with them. They will be sending the saplings. We will be planting them April 20th.”
You can help. They’ve set a goal to plant 200 saplings on their event date of April 20 (that’s a Wednesday) as part of their student-service day. There is a website for people to order their saplings. (CLICK HERE to link to the site and order your saplings now.) The deadline to place your order is this Sunday, March 20, 2022.
The Red Maple is another of the three trees people can choose to order (Provided)
“The website says our goal, says the deadline,” said Beyza. “It has a place where you can place your order. It is really easy. The saplings are really small. They look like sticks.”
Again, the orders will close this Sunday, March 20. When you place your order, there will be a couple options on how to pick up your sapling, or have it delivered to your home. People who choose to pick up their own will be able to pick their sapling(s) up at the school on Wednesday, April 20.
“When people order, they can either choose the option to pick it up themselves,” Beyza said. “In that case, Tree-Plenish will email, everyone who orders a sapling directions how to plant and take care of the tree. Or, they can choose for us to come plant the tree at their home.”
Eastern RedBud, Red Maple, and Northern Red Oak are among the different types of trees about which the website offers information and availability for purchase. There is helpful information about ideal planting conditions and care. With only a few days remaining before the close of orders, the club has already reached over 80% of their goal of 200 saplings for planting. The faculty leader for the LHS Environmental Club Ms. Tonya Nkhata says they had orders for 162 saplings by Monday, March 14. Some of the saplings are earmarked for donation.
The Red Oak is also one of three types of trees people can order from. (Provided)
“We are working with The Grail for the donation part,” said Nkhata. “They can only take about 100 trees. We have already marked 26 for donation.”
Nkhata is helping lead the Environmental Club group on this mission, but they are active in other efforts as well. They are working to help throughout the community.
“I am so proud of the work of the LHS Environmental Club students and their efforts working toward sustainability,” Nkhata said. “This tree sale is one initiative of many that LHS Environmental Club and Green Team are actively organizing for the good of the entire Loveland Community.”
As a student, Beyza Ozbudak offered a her reason for becoming an active member of the environmental club.
“I’m just someone who is concerned about the environment,” Beyza said. “As we grow up, we can see the way it is being harmed. I just want to make a difference.”
CLICK HERE to visit the LHS Tree-Plenish website
Visit Loveland Schools online at: www.lovelandschools.org
