It was heartening, just now, to watch a group of Masterman students with shovels and picks planting four London plane trees along 17th Street by school. Led by seniors Albi Dhimitri (left) and Hasan Malik (right), the kids seemed to be having a ball. "I love trees, dude!" one yelled. And I was amazed to see that students coming out of school were high-fiving and congratulating the group for what they were doing.
And why not? Well, sure. But just imagine all the stuff these kids could've been doing. Instead, they were making our city more beautiful. Thank you!
For years, there were London planes along this block but the city took them down, saying they were diseased. (These trees do get some kind of crud - I've seen it - but a few of the kids were skeptical, suggesting they were removed because someone in the building across the street complained.) Then, to compound the problem, the tree pits were paved over. Oops!
So replanting 17th Street was a natural for Albi and Hasan's senior project, a requirement that is supposed to last the entire school year. Hasan, who started and leads a Tree Tender group in the Northeast, says they'll be planting 23 trees all over that part of the city this weekend. Even his mom, Shahida, was on hand today.
Hasan, 17, is heading to Temple upon graduating - he plans to study civil and environmental engineering. Albi is going to Penn to study "government." Beyond that, he's not sure. But the two of them have already made a major contribution to the city.
"Trees not only increase the wellbeing of everybody and the value of the city overall," says Albi, who sounds far wiser than his 18 years, "but studies show they increase relationships between people." They improve our quality of life, in other words.
"We're just putting the theories into practice," he says, "and we're happy to help the city."
Actually, 565 trees will be planted around Philadelphia over the next few days by Tree Tenders and other volunteers. Tree Tenders is a program of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the folks that just brought you the flower show. The trees are bought for $31 and then sold to anyone who wants Tree Tenders to plant them for $20 apiece. What a bargain.
Ever try to buy yourself a new street tree? And I'm sure you didn't get an army of strong young people to plant it, did you?
Mindy Maslin, PHS' tree lady extraordinaire, was on hand. You can see her hard at work in this photo. Mike Hardy was working away, too. He's from University City Green, which brought along 15 shovels and two pick-axes for the kids to use. Mike (who's just a little bit older than the guy in this photo) says in the fall 700 more trees will be planted around the city.
Even before then - Saturday, April 5, to be exact - 88 trees will be planted in University City. If you're interested in helping to continue the transformation of this remarkable neighborhood, just show up at 10 a.m. that day at Woodland Rec Center, 47th Street and Paschall Avenue, just south of Woodland. If you haven't been to University City in, oh, the last 10 years, come on down. You won't believe it.
Hasan, Albi and all their pals from Masterman out there on 17th Street today know that trees are a big part of what makes a neighborhood livable and beautiful.
I like the way they think. And it sure was fun to watch someone else do the work.
