School Forest

My Christmas tree is perfect because it was grown with love. Students
before me planted it, weeded around it, trimmed it, and shaped it into
the perfect Christmas tree. I know this, because I too have done it, I
am a member of School Forest. I have helped to plant hundreds of
seedlings, worked to give them a good start in life. I watched them
grow and spent hours outside caring for them so that when December and
School Forest Festival came they would be beautiful Christmas trees.
School Forest has been a part of Yellow Springs High School for fifty
years. This year we had forty members, almost a quarter of the high
school, led by our trusted advisor, Mr. Day, and our student leaders,
the 'Occiffers'. (Yes, that is how we spell it.)
Every year mid-December is School Forest Festival. All the School
Foresters camp outside in the fields around a fire for two nights. We
hardly sleep, but instead play games around the fire, have snowball
fights in the fields, hike in the dark woods, and drive the tractor
down the paths. Our parents bring us hot food for breakfast at sunrise
and soon there are customers arriving to buy trees.
Many of our customers have come year after year to find their perfect
tree. Not perfectly straight. Not the perfect in shape. But perfect
because it has a story. Some customers relive the days when they were
in School Forest with their friends, telling me stories as I cut down
their perfect tree. All of our trees are perfect because they hold
memories. Soon I will come back from college and cut down a tree that I
planted my first year in School Forest. That tree will be perfect
because it was grown with love.

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