NMS Students Plant Trees As Eighth Grade Science Project

By Eliza Hallabeck

As their required eighth grade science project, one group of Newtown Middle School boys decided they wanted to bring awareness to the community, and they choose a project called the Lexis Eco Project to help them come up with their solution.

The next thing students Wesley Morlock, Austin Raftery, Vivek Tedla, Matt Mossbarger, and Mike Davis did was brain storm.

Vivek came up with the idea to plant trees, and from there the group worked together to bring the initiative to Buzz’s Shell gas station at 286 South Main Street, owned by Gary Buzzanca.

“It is kind of a pilot project that we want to bring to the town,” said Vivek. “We wanted to have the town donate a couple acres so we can put together a much bigger one and it can be, kind of, a community area.”

The group planted 18 trees, donated by Home Depot and Lowe’s, just to the right behind the gas station. The group also took photos throughout the process and prepared a 20-slide PowerPoint presentation as part of their school project.

Vivek said the group is thinking of bringing the project before the town, and through a website, meningreen.net, created by the group with help from the VRT Management Group, the group hopes to raise people to pledge to plant a tree.

“Deforestation is one of the leading causes of global warming,” the group’s website reads. “If you pledge to plant one tree then you are helping to reduce 2.7 tons of carbon dioxide every year. And over the next 25 years, this tree will absorb and reduce 67.5 tons of carbon dioxide from the environment. If you want this problem to be over and to help the future generations out please pledge as soon as possible. This is the first step to fixing this problem.”

The group is not planning to bring the project to the town until the spring, but is still hoping to have the number of people pledging up by next summer.

“Our goal is to, by the end of the year, have 1,000 pledges,” said Vivek.

Vivek’s father Rajesh Tedla was the coach for the project and is the CEO and chief learning officer of VRT Management Group.

“Our vision is to raise awareness about effects of deforestations on environment and global warming and reverse deforestation,” the group’s website reads.

To see more photos and to learn more about the group’s efforts go to www.meningreen.net.