There’s a wonderful saying about the value of time. It’s often labeled as “an old Chinese proverb,” but the first known publication of it was in a 1967 article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, so its provenance is a bit muddled. The saying is, “The best time to plant a tree is 30 years ago. The second best time is now.”
Thirty years from now, in 2056, EGRHS senior Amelia Iorio will be able to walk along Lake Drive, past her old elementary school, Wealthy, and enjoy the fruits of her labor, or at least the shade.
This school year, as part of her International Baccalaureate diploma coursework, Iorio compiled a database of the tree species around Wealthy Elementary and also planted eight new trees on campus.
“My goal is to raise awareness in the whole community about the importance of increasing the tree canopy in urban areas,” Iorio wrote in her grant application.
It’s highly unusual–and perhaps unprecedented–for the Foundation to fund individual IB students’ projects (even though the EGRHS IB program was originally created with Foundation funding), but the positive impact Iorio’s project will have on the Wealthy Elementary community convinced the EGRSF board to make an exception.
Thank you, Foundation donors, for funding this investment in our neighborhood’s future. We’ll still be thanking you 30 years from now.
