GLEN SPEY, NY — Arbor Day will be celebrated on April 27 this year and 55 fourth-graders in the Eldred Central School District will roll up their sleeves and plant a tree. The kids will become members of Fourth Grade Foresters. The project’s goal is to help revitalizethe observation of Arbor Day in America’s schools. Fourth-graders at the George Ross MacKenzie Elementary School in Glen Spey will receive trees to take home and plant.

The newly formed Eldred Lions Club sponsored the trees.

“This project is made possible because community business people like the Eldred Lions covered the cost of each of the individually packaged evergreen trees, so that there is no cost to the students, the teachers, the school or the taxpayer,” said Debra Ersch, cofounder of the Fourth Grade Foresters Project.

Any individual, business or organization can send fourth graders home with a tree of their own to plant and care for. Each fourth grader receives an individually packaged 12- to 18-inch evergreen tree seedling packaged by workers with disabilities.