Growing young leaders and trees

We're closing on a busy spring: our Arbor Day gathered more than 300 people who planted 32 trees and cared for more than 70 existing ones. It was a glorious sunny day during which families, coworkers, students, officials, scout troops and neighbors gave back to their community.

Young people were so enthusiast about taking on a leadership role that day, that we ended up adding a day of training for Youth Planting Supervisors shortly before the event so more of them could not only volunteer but act as tree experts during the event. They did a great job showing volunteers how to correctly plant a tree or care for older ones.

"Arbor Day is a chance for volunteers to get together in an effort to help the environment by planting and caring for trees in a team atmosphere," explained Julian, one of our Youth Managers to community cable.

This probably was our most successful Arbor Day ever and key to our success was how well our Youth Managers planned and collaborated with community leaders to design and manage the event. From learning from past events, to thinking out of the box about improving the way volunteers would be dispatched, or efficiently guiding a dedicated group of Youth Planting Supervisors and Adult Partners, Tree Musketeers' Youth Managers went above and beyond.

Now that Arbor Day is behind us, we're focusing on training a new generation of young environmental leaders: our LEAD classes will resume at the beginning of July: youth from the area will learn everything there is to know about representing an organization, managing projects and delivering great speeches. If you are in the South Bay, join us!

Thank you so much for contributing to our success, your support means a lot to us and we want you to know how much we're able to achieve thanks to you! Don't hesitate to contact us if you want to learn more or get involved, we love to hear from friends!

Links:

• LEAD Classes webpage
• El Segundo TV covers Arbor Day (video)