Kalkie State School students will be out in full force to help the environment for Planet Ark’s National Tree Day for schools tomorrow.
Students will welcome campaign sponsors Bundaberg Toyota, and supporters Bunnings Warehouse Bundaberg to the school for the third consecutive year to plant trees and make a Planet Ark Outdoor Classroom.
“I love to go outside and learn, it is really relaxing and there is so much to explore when you really look,” Year 2 student Dexter Rowland said.
“We love going outside for science and looking at animals in the trees. We find spiders, birds, preying mantis, and beetles, and leaves for art printing,” Year 2 student Tilly Walmsley said.
“In English we are studying Fern Gully, The Last Rainforest, and how bad for the environment it is to chop all the trees down,” Year 2 student Baxter Bland said.
“The movie is based on a real place called Mt Warning near Byron Bay where I have visited, and now it is World Heritage listed and can never be knocked down. That is great as there are many huge trees there. They are very old.”
Bundaberg Regional Council environment spokesman Cr Wayne Honor said National Tree Day is an important annual event on the environmental calendar and it was wonderful to see our leaders of tomorrow taking part.
“Bundaberg Regional Council will also be hosting a tree planting event on the day in Baldwin Swamp,” Cr Honor said.
“I encourage everyone in the community to get involved in the day which is Australia’s biggest community tree-planting event.”
Sponsors support tree planting
Bundaberg Toyota’s Grahame Harriman has organised shirts and gloves for the students and will be bringing a hybrid car to the event.
On the day, Planet Ark’s ‘Green the Grey’ art competition will be judged by Toyota staff with winning entries submitted to the national competition.
Amanda Lee, Activity Organiser from Bunnings Bundaberg donated the trees and seedlings to allow Kalkie State School to participate in National Tree Day.
Kalkie State School Captain and Reef Guardian Leader,Sai Dettel, said students were thrilled to be participating in National Tree Day.
“Kalkie is a very environmentally active school and we appreciate Toyota and Bunnings for helping us with our planting resources,” he said.
National Tree Day
National Tree Day is officially held on Sunday, 28 July and is Australia’s largest community tree-planting and nature care event.
The campaign began in 1996 and more than 3.8 million people have planted 25 million trees and plants since.
Planet Ark Environmental Foundation Deputy CEO Rebecca Gilling thanked this year’s participants ahead of the event.
“A big theme behind this year’s National Tree Day is how small actions can lead to big changes,” she said.
“Schools like Kalkie State School are great examples of this in practice, as kids get their hands dirty and make a difference to the environment one tree at a time.”
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