Planting Seeds at Special School
Officially, Arbor Day fell on April 26 this year, but for the students and staff of Lokrantz Special Education Center in Reseda, the occasion arrived on Wednesday morning in the form of 22 crape myrtle trees.
Aided by 35 members of the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, faculty and students at the school for disabled children spent the morning planting the trees outside the campus along Shirley Avenue.
Teacher Marilyn Palmer, who helped organize the event, said it was a pleasant way to bring all 260 students together for a project that will beautify not only the school but the neighborhood.
“It’s wonderful for everybody,” she said. “I got a lot of positive energy out of it.”
The trees were donated by the LACC as part of its ongoing effort to benefit communities in Los Angeles. They were especially welcome at Lokrantz, which has seen its landscaping budget cut back sharply over its 30-year history, Palmer noted.
While the Corps handled the more rigorous labor, the students participated in whatever ways they could, some large, some small.
“For the young ones, some of them just enjoyed playing in the dirt,” she said.
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