FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Tree-Planting Grows Out of Student Effort

It started when second-grader Chelsea Davis and some of her friends wanted some shade on the playground at Fred Moiola Elementary School. Chelsea, 8, had just transferred from Fountain Valley Elementary School--which closed last year--and she missed the big trees she used to sit under during recess.

Chelsea and her friends Cassie Davis and Ciara Randles, both 8, and Lesley Massoth, 9, complained--first to their teacher, then to their principal and then to the Parent-Teacher Assn.

Ciara’s older sister, Laura, helped them draw up a petition, and their teacher, Patti House, enlisted the entire class in a letter-writing campaign. The school’s new principal, Paul Klemper, also enthusiastically took on the project.

When the PTA got the petition, signed by 53 students, it approved the planting of three trees. But even then, the girls wanted more.

On Friday, they finally reached their goal after an oil company’s national reforestation program heard of their plight and “adopted” their school. The Arco program, called the Growing Concern, donated 20 trees, 60 shrubs and 60 plants.

Since 1977, the Growing Concern has planted 850,000 trees in 15 states as the oil company works with local governments, community groups and school districts. Five years ago, Hisamatsu Tamura Elementary School, also in the Fountain Valley School District, received assistance from the Arco program for its own tree-planting project.

At Moiola Elementary, about 570 students got a lesson Friday in gardening and the environment when they helped plant the trees and shrubs throughout the campus. The work ended at noon with a barbecue, hosted by Arco, followed by a ceremony honoring all the participants.

School board trustees Ann Galas and Larry Crandall and City Councilman John Collins were on hand to help supervise the event along with 50 parent volunteers.

“This is just a good example of businesses working with the school district,” Collins said. “With the way the budget continues to get cut, industry has to step in. This is the future.”

Each student involved also received a certificate commemorating the day and their efforts. Chelsea and her friends said they will always remember the experience.

“You can’t just give up until something finally happens,” Chelsea said.