On Earth Day, I joined over 150 NBCU volunteers to plant trees in Harlem. The GreenIsUniversal team selected the specific location at Lenox Avenue and Malcolm Boulevard because the neighborhood had a low tree population and a high children’s asthma rate. (A few weeks ago, my husband wrote Green Medicine: Solutions to the Children's Asthma Epidemic if you want more information on how trees can lower the incidence of asthma.)
I signed up because I thought planting trees would be fun…I welcomed that chance to get out into the sun (and away from my Blackberry) for a few hours and celebrate Earth Day with my fellow green friends. I pictured us placing small saplings in little holes, cutting a few ribbons and posing for a few photo ops. Let’s just say that I learned a lot this Earth Day…
First of all, we were planting 6 foot trees so planting turned out to be at least a 5 person job. My original team consisted of 4 women and 1 young girl (Molly, age 6, and the daughter of a dear friend who I’ve known for over 15 years). We noticed a young man and his son who were not assigned to a team and asked them to join us. Turns out it was a great blessing as not only did we need the man power, but they lived in the apartment building where we were planting trees and had stopped by wanting to help. By the end of the morning, his young daughter and wife also joined us and dug right in cheering us on with their stories and bringing welcome gifts of cold drinking water. They must have thanked us about 10 times for planting these trees in their backyard.
With our newly assembled team we divvyed out the chores: three diggers to make the hole 4 feet deep and 4 feet round, an axe picker to chop up the bricks and big rocks buried in the hard soil, a rock collector to separate out the big pieces, a hopper to pack in the dirt when planting the tree and a waterer to saturate the newly planted tree with fresh water. None of us had realized how difficult a task this would be with 5 really big trees to plant in just a few hours. It really didn’t seem possible so we quickly got to work.
I think I’ve never used some of the muscles I used on Earth Day. Digging was hard labor, and I can still hardly lift my arms. But the muscles I recall using the most were my stomach muscles from laughing. I had forgotten how delightfully literal a child can be. Molly was our chief rock collector and the first time I uncovered a really big rock, I called out to her and said “Molly, we need you…this rock has your name on it.” She came bounding over from her stock pile and looked hard at the rock. Then bewildered, she said she didn’t see it, “where was her name?” While we dug, we talked with the neighborhood kids about Earth Day and what it meant. Seems they had learned about Earth Day in school and already knew that it was the day when you “stop being shellfish (sic, read: selfish) and pick up your own garbage”.
In a few hours, we discovered a lot. We found several treasures buried in the dirt such as a Spiderman with no arms (we found one arm a little later). We unearthed a worm, called Wormie, who quickly came under Molly’s gentle care. We uncovered a silver bracelet that fit perfectly as a shiny collar around a 3 week old puppy that was just passing by. And together we discovered the joy that comes from working towards a seemingly impossible task, motivated by the knowledge that we were indeed making a difference. I’ll be among the first to sign up again next Earth Day.
Mary Beth Gonzalez
iVillage.com
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