Ever since my elementary school days, I’ve enjoyed getting involved in my community – from picking up litter at school to beach shore cleanups on vacation, I try to give back to the community. Fast forward to the present day, I continue to get involved with my university as an upper-year Sustainability and Financial Management (SFM) student.
In honour of National Volunteer Week, I wanted to share my experience with tree planting, in the hope that others will be inspired to join. This event was for SFM students and each tree planted was meant to represent every student in the program. That morning before we got our hands dirty, my peers and I spent time learning about the different species of trees native to the Kitchener-Waterloo Region, care instructions and how the saplings will look after a few years, around the time of our graduation.
After a few hours of hard manual labour, all 100 trees were planted and we celebrated by socializing near the lake with some delicious lunch.
This was my first time planting tree saplings and admittedly, digging the holes in the hard mixed soil was more strenuous than I expected but it was a rewarding and great team-building experience. In total, I planted 3 trees 🙂.
If you want to get involved and have a positive impact on our campus, The School of Accounting and Finance will be organizing another tree-planting day in Fall 2024. Send an email to Kelly, as there are many opportunities to volunteer your time.
I'm looking forward to giving back to the community again this year and I hope to see some new faces there.