Tag: earth week

Important Information About Your Trees!

Posted on April 25, 2019 by vnarula

Dear Parents,

Happy Earth Day (and Week)!  Your tree is coming (if it has not already)!

Thank you for registering to receive and plant a free tree with your child(ren) through Neighborhood Forest!

You are part of a coordinated national tree planting initiative that will involve close to 7000 families across North America!

Important Information About Your New Tree

Trees are being shipped to schools this week and will be brought home with your child(ren) by Thursday or Friday this week.

Please keep your tree refrigerated and roots damp until planted!

Most of you will be receiving an Eastern Red Cedar tree.  Below is information about your new tree and some simple planting instructions.

The eastern redcedar grows to a height of 40–50′ and a spread of 8–20′ at maturity and grows at a medium rate, with height increases of 13–24″ per year.

Redcedars are unusually long-lived, with the potential to live over 900 years. The oldest tree reported, from West Virginia, is 940 years old!

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Full sun is the ideal condition for this tree, meaning it should get at least six hours of direct, unfiltered sunlight each day.

Redcedar foliage provides nesting and roosting cover for sparrows, robins, mockingbirds, juncos, and warblers.

The eastern redcedar is an ancient tree, dating back to aboriginal America.

Want to thank us?

Please send us pictures of your kids with the trees!  We love seeing the smiling kids with their trees, especially when they are planted.

We are celebrating our 10th year of giving away free trees and we are starting to collect “then and now” photos of the kids and their trees (see below).  We would love to collect more!

These pictures keep us inspired and motivated – please share the joy! You can post them on our Facebook page.

We are ever so grateful for your participation in our program.

It would not be possible without dedicated parents, children, schools, coordinators, volunteers, and sponsors.

Thank you for making this spring season extra special!

neighborhoodforest

A New Year and A New Beginning

Posted on January 31, 2019 by vnarula

 

We’re a month into the New Year, and that means resolutions have been made, and some have already been abandoned. It means we’ve contemplated the past year, and considered changes for this one to come. It means we have new hopes, dreams, and aspirations.

Hopes, dreams, and aspirations sometimes change, but I’ve always loved nature. I’ve always believed our Earth to be an extension of ourselves, and we of it. So of course I love trees, and I feel honored to have to joined Neighborhood Forest this year.

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During my research to learn more about trees, I learned a tree goes through a life cycle much like a human’s (including birth, infancy, adolescence, teen, adulthood, and maturity). This fact was eye opening for me. I’ve always felt trees were somewhat majestic. Now, I see trees as unique beings, that provide us clean air and oxygen, shade us from the sun, and are home to so many other kinds of life. I also see that every tree is special, just like every person. Isn’t it a beautiful thing we get to share that wonder with children, our neighbors and future generations?

This new year your resolutions don’t have to be huge or nearly unattainable. What are you grateful for, thankful for, even if it’s something small? Even if it’s something as small as a tree seedling. I’m grateful that I get to share my love of nature with children and our communities. My resolution is to share that love as far and wide as I can this year. What are you going to go?

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If you would like to join in on the Neighborhood Forest mission, and share your love of nature with school children, giving them free trees for Earth Day and teaching them about community, consider becoming a sponsor or contact us to find out how you can help. Let’s grow this New Year into a better future together:)

-Tiffany

Ready to Decorate Your Home?

Posted on March 23, 2016 by vnarula

Have you noticed all the new home decorating magazines popping up at checkout counters and bookstores lately? It seems there’s a new one arriving everyday.

There must be hundreds of them now. Some are tied to a famous brand or person. Some have European-sounding names. Some are just weird. But regardless of where they fall on the spectrum, most of them are saying the same thing.

Add color! Paint! Renovate! Remodel! Buy nice towels. Done.

Ok, maybe that’s a bit simplified.

Some of the articles have interesting nuggets of advice, but I find most a little over the top. For instance, one magazine suggested my life will find new meaning when I begin to hold regular soirees filled with glitter balloons, spiced pear truffles and some kind of lustrous light candleholders.

Really?

Thanks for the advice, but I’ll pass.

All the inspiration I need is right in front of me. Spring has officially arrived, which means over the next several weeks I’ve got a front-row seat to learn from the Mother of all Home Decorators.

Can anyone match her creativity, her brilliance, when it comes to decorating her own home? What’s a glitter balloon compared to a budding flower?  What are spiced pear truffles compared to a juicy, ripe pear she lets me pluck and eat off a tree?

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Wouldn’t it be great if we helped Mama Nature out a bit? She’s been doing this for a couple zillion years. 

Of course, we can’t match her attention to detail, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind some extra help. What if we cared for, decorated and celebrated our collective home with the same zeal as she does, with as much love as those magazines want us to care for and celebrate our individual ones?

The good news is we are. Millions of us are coming together on April 22 to honor the greatest home decorator and greatest home ever.

All of us are contributing in our own small way. Neighborhood Forest, for instance, is launching its biggest tree giveaway yet, hoping to give away nearly 10,000 trees to kids during Earth Week (April 18-22).

Do you want a tree for your child? You can sign up (on a laptop, tablet or desktop computer) to get one. To find out if your child’s school participating, you can go to this link: https://www.neighborhoodforest.org/search-for-school/

We know parent participation increases when kids are involved. If a child wants a tree to plant, we don’t want them to go home from school empty-handed. So this year we’ve created a fun video just for them. (See below.)

We hope it will make them smile, reminding them to tell mom or dad not to forget our real “home decorating” day!

Earth Day is coming. Come join the celebration and let’s decorate our home together. 

No glitter balloons necessary.

Let's Celebrate Our Home!

Vivek Narula is the Director of Neighborhood Forest (@treesforkids) – an organization that gives free trees to schoolchildren every Earth Day.

And Now a Word from our Spokesman…

Posted on April 7, 2015 by vnarula

Spring is here!

Get the shovels out of the shed, dust off those yard boots, we’re less than two weeks away from Earth Day.

To kick off the season of grass stained knees and dirt-caked hands, Neighborhood Forest’s 7 year old spokesman shares an Earth Day message about feet, footprints and trees.

Enjoy!

Feet, Footprints and Trees

Vivek Narula is the Director of Neighborhood Forest (@treesforkids) – an organization that gives free trees to schoolchildren every Earth Day.

We Boogied Down!

Posted on May 18, 2014 by vnarula

Yes, we got our groove on with Mama Earth this year. Two states.  26 schools. Nearly 2500 trees planted.

A big thanks to all our wonderful sponsors who made it possible.

Of course, a big thanks goes out to our participating schools, our incredible school coordinators, the teachers, the parents, and, of course, the children. Your support and participation helped make this year’s tree giveaway our best one yet!

Stay tuned. We’ve got more in store for 2015.  More schools joining us, more trees to be given away and more smiles to bring to the kids.

We hope you enjoy some of these highlights from Earth Week 2014!