 Photo: Joni White, SLAC |
Good-natured community relations
Working at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, you never know what projects may come your way. So when Helen Quinn, head of education outreach at SLAC, asked me to plant trees with a class of fourth graders, I said sure, it's not rocket science. Our goal was to plant the trees before January 1 to allow for enough rainfall for the trees to survive. We also had to protect the young plants from the deer that wander SLAC's grounds. Though I was a tree-planting novice, I thought this sounded like a good chance to connect with a local school and add some new oaks to SLAC's already magnificent collection.
The class gathered acorns from their neighborhoods and sprouted them into saplings. The children, many prepared with trowels and gloves, walked over from their nearby school, carefully carrying a dozen small trees growing in milk cartons. The volunteer team at SLAC was waiting in the meadow adjacent to the front gate, ready to assist.
The class paired off and walked out into the meadow where we showed them where to plant the saplings. Vicente Gomez from SLAC's landscaping staff supplied a few shovels and the kids began digging. They were excited to learn they could jump on the shovel and really move some ground! Seeing that, and the satisfaction of having planted a new meadow full of oak trees, we all enjoyed the time outside away from our desks and agreed that this sort of outreach is especially worthwhile.
Joni White, SLAC
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