By Cathy Molitoris

The effort could not have happened without the support of the community and our Girl Scout membership.

Despite some rainy weather, Girl Scouts turned out in force on the weekend of Oct. 7 and 8 to plant hundreds of trees in Nixon Park in York County.

On Saturday, volunteers from Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania (GSHPA) planted more than 350 trees, with many people returning in the afternoon as the rainy weather cleared to plant over 100 more.

When GSHPA fell a bit short of its goal of planting 700 trees, volunteers answered the call for help and came out on Sunday to plant 100 more. At the end of the weekend, the York County Department of Parks and Recreation vowed to plant the remaining trees, ensuring completion of the project. Thank you! 

A true community event, the tree planting drew volunteers from throughout GSHPA’s 30-county footprint as well as representatives from other organizations.

• Teddy Fisher, Assistant Director of York County Parks and Recreation, helped GSHPA secure a spot for the planting
• Forester Brent Peterman from York Parks Habitat laid out the placement of the trees by variety.
• Christian Fitzpatrick from Bartlett Tree Experts assisted with layout as well and also supplied a water truck to water the trees.
• The Chesapeake Bay Foundation supported the effort in numerous ways. Executive Director Julia Krall supplied trees, and Brenda Sieglitz, director of major giving for the foundation, provided “Clean Water Grows on Trees” patches for participating girls. She also assisted with the planting. Daniel Welliver from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation also supplied trees and provided tools for planting.
• Matthew Kern of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources trained the group on how to properly plant the trees. He emphasized the importance of using a tree tube and the placement of a stake to hold the tube upright.
• Members of the Rotary Club of York supported the tree planting, as did members of Woodling Financial, and Ten Million Trees provided the trees at no cost to GSHPA.
• The tree planting was the vision of Girl Scouts Lifetime Member Shelly Riedel, who wanted to support an effort to enrich the environment. She was instrumental in seeing the event come to fruition and also in recruiting many of her own friends to join in the event.

The tree planting is just one way Girl Scouts are striving to make the world a better place, along with the Girl Scout Tree Promise, a pledge to plant, protect and honor 5 million trees by 2026.

If your troop or organization would like to partner with GSHPA for a spring tree planting, whether providing volunteers or land to plant trees, contact us at memberservices@gshpa.org.