Fallready?

For those of us working and volunteering with ReTreeUS, the brightly colored trees and cooler temperatures of autumn really came by surprise. Is it that time already?

Turns out, it really is!

...Time for visiting our four school orchards from last year, and installing our signs which will not only thank those who donated to our Kickstarter campaign, but will also teach students about some of most the basic reasons we plant fruit trees at all.

Here are a couple of designs we plan to use for one sign, which will be personalized for each participating school, acknowledging students, staff and special sponsors, etc. in the space provided:

Thanks to our sign sponsor, BuildASign.com, and Kickstarter donors, we will also install information about the history of apples in Maine (where all our schools are located at this time), pollination, and discerning a wormy or diseased apple, for example, from a few harmless spots.

Daniel Feller, whose blog can be found at www.takingontheyear.blogspot.com, constructed benches for each school where students can sit and observe or enjoy the serenity of the space they helped create.

Meanwhile, four new schools are on board to receive orchards this school year, and many more are on the wait list for future years! We are thankful (but not surprised) that many schools see the value of producing food locally and educating their students about environmental values.

With the support of our scholastic partners, volunteers, sponsors and members, ReTreeUS is fallready to dive into a second exciting school year!