Thanks to the support of the incredible community of students, teachers, custodians, staff, and administrators at Corona Arts and Sciences Academy, an orchard was planted yesterday.
The idea began three years ago, when we first met the visionary stewards at Guardians of Flushing Bay. Together we have developped pathways to reconnect our middle school students with the natural world. We walk the neighborhood, care for rain garderns and tree pits, observe and listen. This past fall, we were awarded a generous grant from the New York City Office of Sustainability. Not knowing how exactly one makes an orchard happen, we expanded our community to include the extraordinary teachers and arborists at Trees NY.
It is our shared belief that the best way to learn is to get a little dirt under our finger nails. Yesterday, we did that together.
“The scientific evidence is impossible to ignore: the forest is wired for wisdom, sentience, and healing.”
― Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
“I think I probably would call it grace, every moment of escape, how many actual millions of them do we carry in the suitcases of our bodies? No let’s say the trees of our bodies, because grace shares a root, you see it there don’t you, with gratitude. Amazing.”
― Ross Gay, Inciting Joy: Essays