It’s obviously going to take some time, but the vast and spacious grounds over at the Jim Kook Rec Plex in Outlook are sure to look fuller and greener in the future after a large group of people got together last week to do some much-needed planting.
On Wednesday afternoon, September 19, the weather cooperated with bright and sunny conditions as town workers, staff from Richards Home Hardware, students from LCBI High School and volunteers from the community got together to plant trees on the rink grounds by the baseball diamonds.
Joining everyone was Kelvin Kelly, a community adviser to Saskatchewan for the Tree Canada organization. The event was a partnership between Tree Canada and Home Hardware, a partnership that makes up a total of 36 tree-planting projects across the country.
Kelvin has helped to plant 1.5 million trees through a number of initiatives aimed at ‘greening up’ communities and infrastructure of all sizes.
“You have a reason to be proud today,” Kelvin told everyone, who’d gathered and were ready to work, complete with gloves and shovels. “You’re helping your community by green-scaping this landscape.”
With a lengthy row of trees to plant, LCBI students broke off into groups of three and went to work, with Kelvin helping them out to ensure they went into the ground properly and received the best chance at growing to be lush and full. With the cooperation and swift work of everyone involved, the planting was virtually wrapped up by mid-afternoon, and Richards Home Hardware’s Nicole Richards took to the store’s Facebook page to comment on the event.
“Well, the tree planting is done; it was a huge success!” said Nicole. “Thank you to the LCBI students that came out and the town employees and council members that helped us. Looks good, guys!”
Tree Canada is a registered charity that’s been dedicated to the planting and nurturing of trees for 25 years, engaging communities, governments, companies and individuals in what they describe as “the pursuit of a greener and healthier living environment for Canadians.” Since 1992, it’s estimated that Tree Canada has planted more than 80 million trees across the country.
The notion of planting trees in Outlook was a timely one, as this past Wednesday, September 26 happened to mark National Tree Day across Canada.
So for now, with the plants in the ground, it simply becomes a waiting game to see how much the trees help fill out the open space at the rink grounds and provide some picturesque rows of green for the public to enjoy in the years ahead.
