Dogwood day afternoon at Lynn Crest School Tree seedlings brighten drab school landscape BY COLLEEN LUTOLF Staff Writer SCOTT PILLING staff Lynn Crest School fourth-graders Jordan Valle (l) and Dequan Fiqua pack a tree seedling in soil during the school’s beautification day. The dogwood seedlings were donated from the N.J. Tree Foundation in celebration of Arbor Day. WOODBRIDGE — Seven months ago, Lynn Crest School in Colonia had no playground, no trees and no money to buy either. Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) co-presidents Jenene Sirc and Cindy Pero were determined to change the school’s grounds, even if they couldn’t increase its budget. The PTO began a fund-raising drive in November in an effort to raise money to beautify the school in spring. But none of the corporations or businesses they asked for donations came through. “Honestly, up until a month ago, we had nothing,” Pero said. But last month, Michelle Phells, the school’s speech pathologist, came to Sirc and Pero with an idea. “One of the teachers had given us an article about how we could receive 300 seedlings for free,” Sirc said. “We filled out the application and had to go to a four-hour seminar in Sandy Hook.” The New Jersey Tree Foundation approved the PTO’s application. Soon after, Sirc and Pero drove back to Sandy Hook to pick up 300 silky dogwoods. The seedlings were planted Friday by all of Lynn Crest’s student body, the PTO and 30 additional parent volunteers. “It’ll look pretty nice with a couple more trees around here,” 9-year-old Paul Magliano said after planting a seedling behind the school. “Yeah, this place is kind of treeless,” said Zaiquis Wright, 10. “Around the whole school there’s barely a tree. Now that we’ll have more trees, we’ll have more oxygen.” For some students, spending 30 minutes outdoors planting trees was a nice reprieve from a Friday afternoon school day. “We get to plant and come outside, and not stay in the classroom,” said fifth-grader Megan McHale, 10. The planting was hard work, Magliano said. “It made me hungry, and we haven’t had lunch,” he said. “Speaking of which, what time is it?” The kids may not have been in class, but they were still learning, Pero said. “We have to document the children’s involvement with the trees,” she said. “They’re going to help maintain the trees, so the activities are integrated into the curriculum.” The front of the school was also receiving a makeover, thanks to a donation from the Firehouse Pub in Rahway. Lynn Crest School is the alma mater of the pub’s owner, Lyn Keyhogh. The school district’s buildings and grounds supervisor Anthony D’Orsi and Robert Druzba, from the township’s recreation department, helped the volunteers with some of the larger landscaping chores, like trimming trees and removing dead shrubbery from the front of the school. “We called and said we have all these trees, but now we need help,” Pero said. “We made one phone call and they just said, What can we do? They really came through for us. We would’ve had to come out on a lot of weekends if we had to do it ourselves. We got lucky.” A walk-a-thon the school held April 19 raised $2,000 that will pay for mulch, retainer stones and a new school sign. Lynn Crest’s courtyard will host a serenity garden with a bench and flowers, Sirc said. Two pieces of playground equipment were also purchased. “We thought vandalism might be a problem, so we feel iffy about putting playground equipment out here,” Sirc said. Lynn Crest’s exterior doors were vandalized with graffiti last week. The doors were repainted before the school’s beautification day. “But this was the main goal of this year,” Sirc said. “These trees and getting the front done.” Sirc and Pero said they spent “thousands” of hours working toward Friday’s activities. “Between soliciting businesses and not getting a response, the walk-a-thon, research, meetings with families and just standing in the shower racking my brain — yeah, thousands,” Sirc said. “They started seven months ago and ate, slept and drank [this project], trust me,” PTO secretary Theresa Grzybowski said. Sirc and Pero want to donate the remainder of the seedlings, since only 150 of the 300 tiny trees were planted.