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Five hundred dogwood and magnolia saplings are heading home with young students after the Great Falls Rotary Club and Bartlett Tree Experts teamed up for their third annual tree distribution.
Kindergarteners and first graders at Colvin Run, Great Falls and Forestville elementary schools received the saplings. An Earth and Arbor Day presentation also introduced students to the environmental importance of trees and the field of arboriculture.
Earth Day was observed Wednesday, April 22, followed by Arbor Day on Friday, April 24.
Students offered their own reasons for valuing trees, pointing out that they provide food, help people breathe and feed animals.
William, Sophia and Charlotte Sandstrom, the children of Rotarian Teresa Sandstrom, volunteered to distribute trees to their classmates.
Connie Sawtell, a past president of the Great Falls Rotary Club, said residents can contribute “one tree at a time” as Fairfax County works toward its goal of achieving a 60% tree canopy by 2030.