| Earth Day Tree-Planting at Chino Hills, CA
"Earth Day is a
day that transcends all national borders, yet preserves
all geographical integrities; it spans mountains and oceans
and time belts, and yet brings people all over the world
into one resonating accord - the preservation of harmony
in nature."
In an effort to
promote environmental awareness, the youth volunteers of
BAPS Charities gave back to Mother Nature by participating
in the Annual Earth Day festivities held on April 19th,
2008. The City of Chino Hills organized an Urban Forest
Planting Project from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. to plant over
100 trees on the north side of Grand Avenue, between Peyton
Drive and Calle San Marcos.
Over 30 participants
with ages ranging from high school to college took part
in this annual event, making them one of the largest groups
present. A total of 134 trees were planted. The group persisted
till the end to help make plant-wells, carry topsoil, and
manually water over half of the 134 trees. "You guys did
an awesome job," said Mike Curtiss of Chino Hills, commenting
on the volunteer's enthusiasm and eagerness to stay behind
and help with the grunt work, "I wish I had another 40 trees
for you to plant."
The youth volunteers
of BAPS Charities, inspired by Pramukh Swami Maharaj, are
devoted to spiritual and communal service for the betterment
of humanity. Through weekly activities, the youth live well-balanced
lives at home, school, work, and at the Mandir (temple).
These youths willingly refrain from the negative influences
and actively participate in community activities.
As a part of preserving
the natural beauty in the city of Chino Hills and to give
back to Mother Nature, the BAPS Cultural Center in Chino
Hills, CA located just northeast of the 71 Freeway, set
between Monte Vista and Central Avenues will be enhanced
by planting over 25,000 plants and approximately 400 trees.
The facility will beautify the freeway corridor, creating
new, open, public spaces with beautiful gardens, walkways,
fountains and other landscaping.
A variety of plants
and trees will be planted on an ongoing basis on the 20-acre
site. As part of the Earth Day celebrations. The first phase
of planting began on April 22 with 220 trees. The types
of trees planted were Pine, California Pajepeut, Cajeput,
London Plane, Sissoo and magnolia glandiflora. This will
be followed at a later phase with 160 palm trees throughout
the site. In addition to the trees, 3,000 of the 15,729
large plant shrubs were planted and included varieties such
as Newzlanslax, Indian hawthorn, heavenly bamboo, big blue
lily turns adorning beautiful red, white and yellow shades.
An additional 3,000 of the 5,826 smaller sized plants were
added to the site. This variety included such plants as
day lily and fortnight lily in addition to the various ground
cover and shrubs.
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