In September, many parents had been very enthusiastic, while others had no idea what was coming towards them. Needless to say, I also had no clue what I had just signed up for, but now realize how lucky I had been to have signed up for TD Tree Days in our community! (I was also lucky to have two new Guiders who were also environmentalists.)

As Girl Guides’ 2012/2013 National Service Project: Operation Earth Action came out, I was all excited to have our Sparks already signed up for our tree planting program (as it is one of the four project activities). Our love for the environment was paying off in many ways. The first week of Guiding came and we had our tree planting ahead of us to look forward to.

On our planting day, everyone  received a TD T-shirt. Some of our proud Sparks were already wearing their Sparks T-shirt and nicely said “No thank you, I LOVE being a Spark.” Everyone was sorted with T-shirts, shovels, shrubs, and trees (even the parents). We walked our way into the Blue Heron Nature Reservation in which we would do the tree and shrub planting.  We had parents and Sparks digging the holes and little Sparks pushing the wagon where they needed the shrubs and trees. Guides and Brownies gave a helping hand when needed.

After two hours of planting, fresh air and beautiful weather, we had planted over 80 shrubs and trees in the ground!

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Everyone was exhausted and happy as we left the nature reservation area. We had not only fulfilled our desire to do something good for the community, we had also had made parents happy, Sparks proud of themselves, gave Sparks the confidence to do things, and astonished a team of young adults from TD and Blue Heron, who told us they had never thought they’d have such energetic and enthusiastic young ladies and parents for that day of tree planting.

Next stop River clean-up 😉

By guest blogger Ramona Abraham -Guider Diamante
Sparks, Chilliwack, BC