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Lenox High students are selling saplings to offset their use of paper.

Lenox Students Planting Trees to Offset Paper Use

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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The school is partnering with Tree-plenish, which started at Mansfield High School. Here Mansfield students Peter Oldow, Will Giffen, and Cam Eddy are ready to plant last year.
LENOX, Mass. — Lenox Memorial High School students want to plant 100 trees as a way to replace one million sheets of paper.
 
And they're looking for help from the community to purchase the saplings and plant them on April 24.  
 
"Basically we're trying to offset our school's paper usage by getting people to buy trees and then getting volunteers to come with us to go plant them in their homes," said student Sabrina Lewis. "I'm really excited, but also, we do need people to buy more trees."
 
Community members can buy an 18 inch to 24 inch red maple or river birch sapling for $5, which includes delivery and COVID-19 safe planting. 
 
The goal is to replace the estimated million sheets of paper that the school uses each year. Students have already sold around 21 trees.
 
This event was organized by the school's Climate Crisis Control Club in partnership with Massachusetts non-profit organization Tree-Plenish, which began as a senior project in Mansfield and now reaches around 20 states. The student-led nonprofit says it's on target to plant 14,000 trees through partnerships with 90 schools. 
 
The club was started by Lewis and classmate Medeja Rudzinskaite last year and currently has around 13 members.
    
"Even though we're remote now and we use less trees, we're still trying to offset our usage from previous years," Rudzinskaite said.
 
Tree-Plenish reached out to Grade 9 world literature teacher Scott Wade at the beginning of the school year and the club was happy to partner with it.
 
Wade explained that the club is also planning an Earth Day cleanup to beautify local spaces and have a few other projects in the works. Earth Day is on Thursday, April 22.
 
He said this project has also made him realize that many class handouts could be replaced with a Google document or other virtual rendering.

Saplings can be purchased at tree-plenishevents.org/lenox.

 

 


Tags: Lenox Memorial,   trees,   

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Pittsfield ZBA Member Recognized for 40 Years of Service

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Albert Ingegni III tells the council about how his father-in-law, former Mayor Remo Del Gallo who died at age 94 in 2020, enjoyed his many years serving the city and told Ingegni to do the same. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — It's not every day that a citizen is recognized for decades of service to a local board — except for Tuesday.

Albert Ingegni III was applauded for four decades of service on the Zoning Board of Appeals during City Council. Mayor Peter Marchetti presented him with a certificate of thanks for his commitment to the community.

"It's not every day that you get to stand before the City Council in honor of a Pittsfield citizen who has dedicated 40 years of his life serving on a board or commission," he said.

"As we say that, I know that there are many people that want to serve on boards and commissions and this office will take any resume that there is and evaluate each person but tonight, we're here to honor Albert Ingegni."

The honoree is currently chair of the ZBA, which handles applicants who are appealing a decision or asking for a variance.

Ingegni said he was thinking on the ride over about his late father-in-law, former Mayor Remo Del Gallo, who told him to "enjoy every moment of it because it goes really quickly."

"He was right," he said. "Thank you all."

The council accepted $18,000 from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation and a  $310,060 from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Safe Streets and Roads for All program.

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