P.A.'s Park Manager, Tim Yeaman helping École Vickers' student, Jacob Cloutier plant a tree. (Ronald Quaroni/paNOW Staff)

By Ronald Quaroni

Student action

Letter from École Vickers’ student plants a seed with city

Jun 20, 2019 | 2:39 PM

Students at École Vickers learned Thursday morning the pen is mightier than the sword.

As a project for Earth Day, students were encouraged to write letters to different levels of governments and organizations with their ideas on how to, “green up” the province and city.

“They were absolutely charmed when letters came back in the post addressed to them saying, ‘Wow, what you’ve said is true and we can make a difference, we can change this,’ both from the city and the school division,” Jane Sinclair, who teaches Grades 5 and 6 at École Vickers, said. “I’m fascinated by the fact that I was assuring them that they were empowered to change their world and, low and behold they had.”

Jacob Cloutier, 11, is a student of Sinclair’s. He penned a letter to the city, encouraging tree planting at the entrances of the city, as well in park spaces. Jacob’s letter ended up on the desk of Wes Hicks, Prince Albert’s Director of Public Works.

“It was a very well written letter,” Hicks told paNOW. “The way Jacob approached it, and I’m assuming the rest of the class did too, it wasn’t so much a protest, it was an ask, a responsibility to society saying, ‘We could do more.’”

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The writing of Jacob’s letter was fortuitous, as the city was in the midst of creating a beautification master plan, and the city decided to include Jacob and his classmates.

Thursday morning, in partnership with the students and staff, Parks Manager Tim Yeaman gave a tree planting demonstration at the Splash Park near École Vickers and the first tree of the year was planted and named in honour of Jacob.

The Grade 5 student said he had a lot of fun during the experience.

“It was very fun. We learned how to write formal letters and learned how to plant trees,” Cloutier said. “I’m so thankful for having my own tree in P.A. I’m so grateful for it.”

Tree planting at the Splash Park (paNOW Staff/Ronald Quaroni)

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Ron.quaroni@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @RonaldQuaroni