More Than Planting Trees: A Co-op Day at Community Greening

We've volunteered with Community Greening before, but this visit felt different.  This time, we went as a co-op. Before anyone got dirty, we had a chance to hear the story behind the work.

Community Greening Co-Founder and Executive Director Mark Cassini started our morning by talking with our learners about how he started the organization. He saw a need to protect and expand green spaces, but he didn't begin by assuming he knew how to do it. He started talking to people in other cities who were already doing similar work. Then he went to conferences. He learned. He asked questions. And eventually, he built a team of people who brought the knowledge and passion needed to do the work.

Community Greening was founded in 2016 and has since helped plant more than 30,000 trees throughout South Florida. Yet, as Mark explained, there is still plenty of work to be done to increase the tree canopy in Palm Beach County. With only nine people on the full-time team, volunteers are an important part of making that possible. But it was Mark's advice to the learners that provided an unexpected "wow moment."

When you're considering a career, don't just read the website. Find someone actually doing the work and ask if they'll give you 20 minutes.
Ask what the job is really like. Ask how they got there. Ask what they wish they had known. Learn from the people already doing what you think you might want to do. That is the kind of advice I hope our learners remember.

After that, it was time to work. We harvested seeds, planted seeds, transferred young seedlings into larger pots and did plenty of weeding.
A tree that will eventually provide shade somewhere in South Florida doesn't begin with a group of volunteers showing up with shovels on planting day. Long before that happens, someone has to collect the seeds. Someone has to plant them. Someone has to care for the seedlings, move them into larger pots and keep them healthy until they're ready to find their permanent home.

This time, we got to experience several pieces of that process.

The learners worked in groups, which meant something else was happening while all those seeds and seedlings were being tended to: they were getting to know one another better. There was work to accomplish, but there was also time to talk, laugh and learn alongside people they may not have known particularly well before that morning. And the parents were right there with them.

As everyone worked, the conversations continued. One mom commented that she found weeding therapeutic. Mark wasn't surprised. He shared that some Community Greening volunteers have actually come to them following recommendations from their therapists.
It makes sense when you think about it. You're outside, working with your hands, talking with the people around you and, when you're finished, you can actually see what you accomplished.

A dad used the opportunity to pick Mark's brain about how he could get his own trees to be more productive. He also had a question about those weeds we were pulling. Could he take them home to feed his chickens? Absolutely.  Community Greening was going to destroy them anyway, so those weeds found another purpose.

Somewhere in those conversations, Mark also got to learn about Braveheart Farm and the work happening there. Those are some of my favorite moments during experiences like this. People who are doing good things in our community get an opportunity to learn about other people doing good things in our community. You never know what might grow from that.

​As for me, I love seeing the results. There is something incredibly satisfying about looking at an area covered in weeds and then seeing the little tree that was hiding underneath it. Because when we remove those weeds, we're giving that tree a better chance at a long life. Sometimes we uncover a tree and discover that we're too late. The tree didn't make it. That's part of growing without relying on pesticides. Sometimes the weeds win. But most of the time, they don't. And maybe one day that little tree we uncovered will be the tree someone is sitting under years from now. That's a pretty good return on a little sweat.

There are many different kinds of programs in the homeschool world, and the word "co-op" gets used pretty loosely these days. For us, the cooperative part matters. Parents aren't simply dropping off their children for someone else to educate them. We create experiences together. Sometimes a parent leads. Sometimes we bring in someone with expertise we don't have. Sometimes we volunteer. Sometimes we're the learners ourselves. The point isn't to recreate school. It's to give our learners opportunities to do real things, alongside real people, while building relationships with one another and with the community around them.

This particular Monday happened to involve a nursery. We listened first. Then we got dirty. Learners worked together. Parents worked beside them. Seeds were harvested and planted. Seedlings were repotted. Weeds were pulled—and apparently some weeds went home to chickens.
And before we left, families who wanted them were invited to take home free moringa seedlings. I rather like that ending to our morning.

We came to help grow something for our community and left with something of our own to grow at home. But maybe we took home more than seedlings. Our learners heard from someone who saw a problem, started asking questions, found people who knew more than he did and built something that is making a difference. They worked beside one another and got to know each other a little better. Parents learned too. They asked questions, shared ideas, made connections and contributed their own hands to the work. Someday, some of those tiny plants we worked with may become part of the tree canopy we're currently missing.

Maybe there's a lesson hiding in there too. Big things don't always start big. Sometimes they start with a seed, some curiosity and a willingness to ask someone who knows more than you do:  "Can I learn from you?"

Previous Community Greening Visit
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Tree of Life Resource Center