Purple Haze
Happy Arbor Day
By Lauren Bagian

April 29, 2010

Last Thursday, April 22, was Earth Day, and lately everyone is talking about going green. Plastic grocery bags are becoming a thing of the past, energy-bill conscious dads are turning out lights before their children have even left the room, cars can be run on electricity and Hershey’s chocolate syrup (well, that’s a bit of a stretch, but you get my point). So what does that mean to you? To Dillsburg? To the Northern York School District?

There’s a cerebration at Northern Elementary that I remember fondly. With Earth Day, and now Earth Week, the week before, Arbor Day seems to be forgotten, but not here. Every year on Arbor Day, students from Northern Elementary plant a tree surrounding the school. Every student gets to add a shovel-full of dirt so that everyone played a part in planting the tree.

I remember sitting outside in the grass on a warm spring day trying to listen to my teachers talk about Arbor Day, but not really being interested at that age. Instead, I looked around at other trees that had been planted in previous years in various stages of growth and I couldn’t help but feel amazed. There were trees from when my brother, 2 years my senior, was in elementary school; he probably helped plant one! There were some big trees too, probably planted by my neighbor who was already in high school. The trees, if left to grow, would be alive even when I graduated college and moved away from Dillsburg, and as a fourth-grader that seemed a million years away. Some of the trees were flowering as well and their beautiful petals were scattered on the ground under them. From that day on I had a newfound appreciation from that world around me, and it all came from planting a tree.

Sometimes due to the mass media things get blown out of proportion. You aren’t “green” unless you eliminate all waste, utility use, bathing and shopping at super markets, but that’s not the case. You can help the environment by keeping a garden or refilling plastic water bottles instead of buying a new bottle every time. Simple changes like that can make you “greener,” but more importantly, little acts such as planting a tree can inspire a lifetime of green-habits and an appreciation for life in every form.