Davey Tree Flipbooks

November/December 2015 | 23 class about his passion, trees. "The kids were so receptive and interested in the topic of conservation," Campbell says. "I love that students are learning about sustainability at such a young age." Campbell taught more than 20 children about forest conservation and the role trees play in our ecosystem, relating to wildlife, soil value and water quality. He was surprised the children knew so much about conservation and sustainability already and how eager they were to ask him questions. They even asked him about trees at their own house and what Davey employees would do to fix it. "My highlight of the day was when I gave the kids a worksheet at the end of class about what they learned," Campbell explains. "It was amazing what they remembered from our conversation about air and water quality." Campbell says he was "amped up" after teaching the class and working with the children —it was a great way to switch up his day. He adds if the school asked him to come back and teach next year, he will definitely say yes. F ourth graders at Newton Lee Elementary School in Ashburn, Virginia, were ecstatic when five guest teachers, including a Davey arborist, visited their class to teach conservation. Assistant Principal Beth Cipriano asked her husband Mario Cipriano, district manager at the Northern Virginia R/C office, if an arborist would be interested in speaking to the students Children Schooled About Conservation T he alphabet, numbers and shapes are typical topics preschoolers learn on a daily basis. But when Heather Gonzalez, a teacher from Pines Presbyterian Preschool in Memorial City Centre, Texas, recalled trees were the topic for her upcoming lesson plan, she knew to call in the professionals for assistance. Gonzales called the local Davey Residential/ Commercial (R/C) office to help teach her four- and five-year-old students about trees and the benefits they provide to the community. Wyatt Bilby, district manager at the North Houston R/C office, took the call and agreed to visit the school to teach tree topics for the day. "I explained trees using kids' language," Bilby says. "I kept it simple and went over the difference between roots, stems and leaves." Bilby's tree lesson included a nature walk to further explain trees and the benefits they provide in nature. On their walk, they stopped to check out a white oak tree Davey donated earlier for the kids to plant. Later, Foremen Raymundo Jaimes and Onesimo Benavides met Bilby at the school in a Davey chip truck. Together, they explained the equipment tree workers use and discussed what tree care professionals like Jaimes and Benavides do in the field. Tree Talk to Tiny Tots Wyatt Bilby, Onesimo Benavides and Raymundo Jaimes (left to right) taught preschool children about the tree care industry and equipment. "The kids were great and very attentive; the best group of kids I have ever worked with," Bilby says. Gonzales was so thrilled how the tree lesson worked out, she asked Bilby to come back next year to teach her class about trees. about forest conservation. Cipriano appointed Sales Arborist Cory Campbell to join four other local professional volunteers and speak about conservation. Campbell, who graduated with a forestry degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, agreed to help; he was excited to get back to his educational roots and teach the Cory Campbell had a blast teaching fourth graders about forest conservation and the role trees play in the environment.

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