DURHAM — With the help of nonprofit ReTreeUS, 500 students and their teachers, four orchards — that’s around 30 trees — were planted at four schools in southern Maine on April 26 and 27. Those 500 young helpers take pride in their apple, plum, pear and peach trees to be enjoyed by current fellow students, as well as many more children and families in future years.

Appropriately scheduled on Arbor Day, the planting of these 30 trees was a mere three percent of the total number of trees planted by ReTreeUS co-founders and volunteers this year.

In addition to planting 1,000 trees, ReTreeUS has also started an organic farm, growing nutritious foods for families, who can purchase the items on a sliding scale for income. The ReTreeUS “fruit shack” will open before the end of June, first providing saplings and plants to gardeners, then cut flowers, kale and other veggies. In future autumns, when the trees are bearing fruit, the farm will have apples, plums, peaches and pears for customers of all income-levels to enjoy.

Friend and volunteer Dan Feller has finished his recycled-wooden benches to add to the orchards in the fall, along with the educational signage ReTreeUS designed and funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign. For more details on this project and many others, visit www.retreeus.blogspot.com.

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