Students in Newtown High School’s Environmental Club hope to plant 300 trees by April 24 to offset the school’s paper usage, and they want residents to help in the effort.

Near the start of December, Tree-Plenish, a student-led effort to make high schools more sustainable according to its website, tree-plenish.org, partnered with 85 schools, including NHS, to help build sustainable communities through youth engagement, according to a press release.

Newtown High School’s Environmental Club plans to plant 300 trees on April 24, 2021, to offset the school’s paper usage during one academic year. Maili Pieragostini, a NHS Environmental Club member and one of the main coordinators of this event, is hoping the Tree-Plenish event will be successful in reaching their goal.

“We are hoping to get people around town excited about planting trees and helping Newtown become more sustainable,” Maili said in the release.

Tree-Plenish mentors students through a step-by-step process to achieve their ultimate goal: hosting their own tree-planting event. With the help of Tree-Plenish, students calculate their school’s paper usage. To reach their goal number of trees, students rely on residents of the community to request trees to be planted by volunteers in their yard. Residents can request and purchase trees through tree-plenishevents.org/newtown.

Throughout the winter and early spring, students and schools plan their tree-planting events. Students market their event to the community, encouraging residents to request trees, which will be planted in their yards on the day of the event. Tree reservations are accepted until one month before the event, to allow time for the trees to be ordered and delivered. For the Newtown event, all trees must be ordered by March 24. Students also recruit volunteers from the community to help plant trees on the day of the event. Tree-Plenish has created specific pandemic-related guidelines to protect both the residents of the community and the volunteers for the event due.

Sign-ups are open through the website for residents who would like to request trees and for anyone who would like to volunteer to plant them on the day of the event. The more homeowners who request trees, the faster the students will be able to reach their goals. For those unable to request a tree or volunteer their time but who would still like to support the club’s effort, monetary contributions are also accepted on the website.

Amanda Stowe, a member of the NHS Environmental Club, is feeling excited about the prospect of planting these trees to offset paper usage at NHS.

“I think this tree-planting initiative helps make Newtown more sustainable and helps to raise awareness of environmental issues such as overuse of paper, climate change, and habitat loss,” Amanda said.

Tree-Plenish is a student-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Speaking on behalf of the club, NHS Environmental Club member Brian Lageman said, “We hope that we reach our goal of planting 300 trees, because that’s what we calculated is our paper usage of a school for one year.”