|
Fruit
Tree Tour visits Long Beach
By
Matt Logan
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Transform
a concrete jungle into a fruit tree sanctuary
with some eclectic drum beats as a catalyst
and you've got the Fruit Tree Tour.
There
are many places in the cities of America
where kids have little to no vegetation
and definitely not many fruit trees. The
non-profit organization Common Vision was
created to help "cultivate ecological
awareness and respect for the Earth while
generating social and environmental changes
towards sustainable lifestyles," as
explained in their mission statement on
commonvision.org.
On
March 2, the Fruit Tree Tour was here in
Long Beach visiting The New City School.
Traveling north into Los Angeles to finish
the week they visited Normandie Avenue Elementary
School on Friday. During the event they
were able to work with students to plant
75 trees and involved approximately 1,600
kids. "The drums make the kids go nuts,"
said Common Vision volunteer Michael Flynn,
"Even teachers where coming out and
shaking their booties!"
Flynn
has been involved with Common Vision for
over a year and says these events serve
as "an everyday reminder of our connection
with the earth."
Flynn
said his favorite part of being a volunteer
was when he was planting a tree with students
and he could watch "the connection
between the soil, student and the tree take
place… with their hands in the dirt,
it's a magical moment."
To
make that magical moment happen the kids
have about 20 different trees to choose
from, including plum, apple, peach, pear,
persimmon, apricot, guava and fig.
The
Fruit Tree Tour team travels to each destination
in a colorfully painted environmentally
friendly bus. The biodiesel engine is powered
by vegetable oil. Flynn said they will stop
at an In-N-Out (or any place that has a
deep fryer) and ask if they can have their
old vegetable oil, and that the people are
usually very happy to get rid of several
gallons of the oil and animal fats.
After
a quick and safe chemical treatment, it
is ready to power the biodiesel engine.
When
the bus rolls up to a school performance,
artists pour out dressed in indigenous African
mud-cloth fabric spilling melodic thumping
drum beats into the air and creating a break
from the monotony of a regular inner-city
school day. The Fruit Tree Tour volunteers
are also educators, as they teach ecological
concepts by relating ancient and modern
Native American stories and through their
performing "ecological hip-hop,"
which gets the students involved and makes
it a personal experience for the kids.
Common
Vision often combines their efforts with
other non-profit organizations while on
the Fruit Tree Tour. In Los Angeles they
worked side by side with Community Services
Unlimited.
"The
kids love the West African beats and earth-conscious
hip-hop," said Neelam Sharma, a volunteer
at Community Services Unlimited.
The
most important element of the project to
Sharma is how it engages the youth. Sharma
shared an experience where a young boy was
planting trees at his elementary school
and explained that he would no longer be
in elementary school when the trees are
grown and are full of fruit but his baby
brother would.
"Everyone
feels a sense of ownership for their work…by
creating landscapes these kids have never
really seen," he said. Sharma believes
that when the children get involved in their
own community and plant the trees themselves
it gives them pride in their neighborhood.
It is a community-altering transformation
"from concrete to greenery," said
Sharma.
The
volunteers who travel from school to school
in their veggie oil-powered caravan appear
to be modern day Johnny Appleseeds, but
Johnny has got a whole new bag of seeds
and a hip-hop drum thumping sound, and it
is not just apples anymore.
For
more information, go to www.commonvision.org.
|
