Coca Cola Nationwide Tree Planting at Sapinit

I was invited to be part of the nationwide tree planting activity  held on July 23,2011 at The Marikina - Sapinit area. I am one of the Live Positively Brand Ambassadors of Coca Cola.

Thank God the weather cooperated that day. I opted to go there directly because I wanted to get more sleep because if not, I need to be in Makati at 6am! It wasn't hard to look for the area because of my handy dandy GPS and upon arrival, we were greeted by the local volunteers in that area. Before we started the activity, city and barangay officials gave a little speech and we were also briefed about the activity.

According to the mayor, Sapinit area was one of the contributors to Metro Manilas flooding when Ondoy happened, because of the lack of trees. To help solve that, alternative livelihood programs should be provided to the people living in that area so that they won't continuously destroy the trees for their personal use (like using the wood for fire)

Another way to help sustain the environment is by planting more trees. I've attended several tree planting activities before and this one is rather different. We got to do hands on work, participate and at the same time learn. Before, we just donated seedlings, hold the shovel, pose for a photo op and we're off! Joining a tree planting activity is a great experience and I strongly suggest that you join one when given the chance. (The real thing, and not the photo op tree planting, ok?)

There were several roles to choose from. Each job has their own importance:
Wildling collection -- Gather wildlings, bring to the nursery and prepare for potting
Nursery work -- Prepare potting mix, pot the wildlings and arrange potted wildlings in plot
On-site preps -- Clear and measure site, install stakes and dig holes
Outplanting -- Haul wildlings to planting site, enlarge/deepen holes, plant wildlings and apply mulch

I decided to choose the nursery part because I was with my mom and I don't want her walking too much. Upon reaching the nursery area, we went to a table made of combined bamboo sticks (More like a raft type of table). On the table was a pile of soil (or so I thought). We then bagged the soil into this little black bags, shake it up a bit to compact the small plastic bag then add more soil then line it up on the ground. It was an easy job yet still important.

After bagging the soil bags one by one, we then cut the wildlings to reduce the amount of leaves on it (because big leaves take up a lot of the nutrients needed for the plant to grow.) after, we place the small wildlings in the soil bags we created, we drill a small hole in the middle of the soil bag using a barbecue stick to assist the entry of the wildlings so the roots of the wildlings won't be stressed because of the tightness of the soil.

That's what we did and it the second part was back breaking and there were tons of Mosquitos! Remember the Off Mosquito commercial before, where they put the hands inside a box full of Mosquitos? It was like that, only, our whole body was subjected to them. Good thing I was wearing my rush guard below my dri-fit shirt and jogging pants. Only my hands and head were exposed, which is easily manageable.

Each wildling planted needs ten years to fully grow. (The photo above is just incubating the wildlings) This means that our kids, the next generation, would be the ones benefiting from all the work we've done now. Makes you feel good to know what you contributed. I suggest you do the same. Coca cola is participating in a worldwide effort in promoting and helping create a sustainable community.

For more information about Coca Cola's Live Positively initiative, check out:
http://www.livepositively.com.ph/

Cheftonio
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