Church street students...
... plant a sunset red maple tree outside their school.
Church Street Elementary students took turns Friday shoveling soil over the roots of a young red maple tree — and played their parts in planning safer, shadier and more stimulating school grounds for future generations.
The southern Hamden kindergarteners through sixth graders were joined by representatives of the town’s Tree Commission, public works employees, Mayor Lauren Garrett, Assistant Superintendent Chris Melillo, and United States Forest Service icon Woodsy Owl for their Arbor Day Celebration. The crew left their classrooms (and offices) to gather outside to plant three new town trees in honor of the occasion.
Principal Karen Butler with Woodsy Owl.
“There is a quote that says, He who plants a tree plants hope,’” Church Street Principal Karen Butler said to a crowd of sun-lit faces.
Arbor Day is often lost in the shadow of better-known holidays such as Earth Day, Butler said. On the 150th anniversary of the day’s creation, Butler set time aside for students to look up to the long-lived limbs lacing the sky above them — and to learn about the life-line trees extend to humankind.
“Trees are awesome because they create shade when it’s warmer out and keep us cool,” Mayor Garrett told the kids.
“Today, we’re happy to be in the sun,” she added, clutching her jacket close as a cold breeze blew by.
“They are the lungs for the entire planet, and they’re beautiful.”
The plantings were connected to Hamden’s “Request a Tree” program, an initiative run by the town’s Tree Commission. If Hamden homeowners ask for a tree to be put on their property, volunteers will assess the street-proximate spot, determine what type of tree is appropriate for the space, and get it in the ground free of charge. In exchange, owners agree to care for the tree through its first three years.
Since the commission’s founding in 2015, Chair Thomas Parlapiano said they have teamed up with public works to line the town’s streets as well as fill local parks and other public spaces with 400 new trees, averaging between 50 and 100 saplings per year.
Tree Commission Chair Thomas Parlapiano gets excited talking about the abundant benefits of trees — from providing oxygen, cleaning the air, increasing sidewalks' longevity, reducing noise and flooding, increasing property values, beautifying our surroundings and marking the seasons.
The audience of Church Street students is just as excited to listen.
In 2016, the commission also started naming “notable trees” each month. The first tree they highlighted to kick off the series six years back was a sky-high sycamore that lives behind the Church Street playground, making the adjacent basketball hoop where students take shots look like less than a blade of grass in comparison.
This spring, two PTA parents put in a plea for three more trees to keep that sycamore company.
A child leans on the "notable" Church Street sycamore.
“Trees are critical infrastructure that improve our quality of life. Hamden’s urban forest provides health benefits and climate resiliency which are benefits that everyone should have regardless of where they live. Trees are often lacking in neighborhoods with more low-income families and people of color, as has become the case in our Church Street neighborhood,” argued spouses Andrea Gloria-Soria and Nathan Havill in a March email sent to Mayor Garrett’s office on behalf of the Church Street School Alliance for Family Engagement.
They quickly got the go-ahead to use special funds maintained by the commission and made up of resident donations to bring the sunset red maple and two okame cherry trees to Church and Chester Streets. Then they launched and participated in Friday’s educational observance.
Gloria-Soria, the president of the PTA, is a researcher with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. Her husband, Havill, is an entomologist in the U.S. Forest Service’s Hamden laboratory on Mill Pond Road.
Havill could be seen handing out stickers and speaking to interested early-scientists at the event. Gloria-Soria didn’t make an appearance — but this reporter noticed Havill holding onto visitor Woodsy Owl’s wing behind the scenes of the show.
Nathan Havill and Woodsy Owl hang out with Church Street students.
While kids listened to the day’s speakers and congregated around Woodsy Owl, they also contributed through presenting their own Arbor Day-related research and cracking some jokes.
Trees reduce the effects of climate change, cut energy costs for the school and town, and improve neighborhood wellbeing through crime reduction, shared several students who had been selected to stand up and speak.
Students share fun facts ...
... and puns.
Then a pop quiz:
“What kind of tree can fit in your hand?” one student speaker prompted.
“Palm trees!” their peers cheered.
“Why was the cat afraid of the tree?” another asked.
“Because of its bark!” was the answer.
“What’s a pirate’s favorite holiday?”
“Aaaaaarbor day!” the audience responded.
Interim Superintendent Melillo took a moment to share some of his findings regarding how trees specifically improve school settings.
Trees lower student stress levels, he said. “They’re outdoor learning spaces for our children. If you plant one tree near a school, it improves the academic outcome of our students,” he added, citing a 2018 study on the link between “greenness” and academic achievement.
Finally, he pointed to Hamden Tree Warden Chris Rhone, who oversaw Friday’s plantings.
Chris Melillo with past student Chris Rhone: "He used to be shorter than me." Like the trees, he has grown.
Years back, Melillo was Rhone’s teacher at Church Street.
“As an educator, I couldn’t be more proud that he learned lessons from his educators and then went out to improve the world,” he stated.
He concluded, “We’re all working together to make Hamden and the world a better place.”
Fantastic event and great article. The "Hamden Commemorative Tree Gift Fund" was used to purchase the three trees planted at Church Street School. Many of the donations to this fund came from residents near Helen Street School, an area of focus last year. Let's keep passing it forward!