Centre Wellington councillors learned at their meeting on Feb. 14 that there is no shortage of volunteers at the Wellington County Green Legacy program.
Councillor Walt Visser, who sits on the Green Legacy committee, told council at the start of the meeting that members had received a break-down of all the help the program received in 2010.
And the hours did not include the students from Kindergarten to grade 3, who grow trees from seedlings in their classrooms. Those seedlings are later planted at the Green Legacy nursery in Puslinch Township, and there were 4,775 students involved in that project alone.
Next, grades 4 to 6, 2,281 students, gave 6,843 volunteers at the nursery itself.
Grades 7 and 8 students spent another 1,217 volunteer hours planting the trees.
Then, there were groups at the nursery. They included Wellington County staff, where nine people gave 50 hours.
In the educational programs, a number of groups got involved:
– Red Leafs, 36 students, 339 days, at seven hours per day, for 2,373 hours;
– Give Yourself Credit, 10 people, 40 hours;
– Home School Group, 18 people, 108 hours;
– 7th Inning, 10 people, 50 hours;
– Wyndham House, 8 people, 144 hours;
– Centre Wellington District High School, 85 people gave 180 hours;
– Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute, 44 people, 132 hours;
– University of Guelph, 246 people and 850 hours;
– Bishop MacDonnell High School, a class of nine gave 125 hours and three co-op students gave 324 hours;
– College Heights, a class of nine gave 125 hours, two co-op students gave 360 hours, and two students gave 116 hours in a two week work placement.
As well, there were volunteers from the community; Vanier Centre for Women, 346 inmates gave 1,730 hours.
On the corporate side, The Co-operators had 12 people give 20 hours.
Environmental groups also got involved:
– Junior Rangers, five people, 70 hours;
– Girl Guides, 120 people, 360 hours;
– Environthon, 60 people, 120 hours
– CELP (Canadian Envi-ronmental Literacy Project) 66 people, 222 hours; and
Young Naturalists, 80 students, 160 hours.
There were some individual volunteers, too:
– for adults, 40 people gave 308 hours;
– children, 45 gave 292 hours, and
– individuals collecting seed, 66 gave 117 hours.
That meant a grand total of 3,610 people donated 15,219 hours of their time to Green Legacy.
Visser told council, “Everybody knows we’ve planted one million trees. What’s really important is the number of kids involved.”
He said they will likely continue planting trees for the rest of their lives.
Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj noted that the United Nations has cited the program as one to emulate.
