Barnes, Hy-Vee Plant Trees on East High’s Campus
Students from Capitol View Elementary School join Harrison Barnes in planting trees on the East High campus.
Harrison Barnes dropped 40 on East High School on Thursday.
Trees, not points.
As an ambassador for Hy-Vee’s One Step community betterment program, Barnes made time in what’s been, to put it quite mildly, a busy year for the central Iowa native (NBA Finals, Olympic gold medal, $94 million contract signing – oh, and he got engaged) to lend a hand at a community tree-planting event on the East campus.
With plenty of help from the undefeated Scarlet football team, a crew of 4th graders from nearby Capitol View Elementary and a contingent of Hy-Vee employee volunteers, Barnes and DMPS Superintendent Dr. Tom Ahart planted an assortment of oak, linden, tulip, locust and elm trees along Walker and Buchanan Streets.
Trees Forever and the City of Des Moines forestry department were there to provide expert advice about not planting too deep (“Plant them high and they will not die. Plant them low and they won’t grow.”) and the shovelers dug right in after a pep program in the parking lot next to Williams Stadium.
“The East motto is ‘In Service to Humanity,’” Dr. Ahart told the assembled arborists-for-a-day. “And what better way than this to represent that and the district’s mission to grow 32,000+ students into strong citizens?”
Barnes recalled playing against East during his high school days in Ames en route to consecutive undefeated and state championship seasons. “We won by the way,” he jibed. But more seriously he reminded the students who were present that they don’t need to reach lofty levels like the NBA or the NFL to have positive impacts in their community.
“The Hy-Vee One Step philosophy is that one step can make a difference,” he said. “It’s a work ethic that you guys can apply in your daily lives whatever you do.” Put another way, “Out of little acorns…”
For two years now Barnes has helped promote One Step, which generates funding for an array of worthy causes through the sale of select products at Hy-Vee grocery stores.
One Step has made 584 community gardens, 14,000 trees, more than 300,000 meals through Meals from the Heartland and 18 clean drinking wells possible so far. The One Step product line includes bottled water, shredded wheat cereal, paper towels and bags of potatoes. And it’s being expanded to include more paper products because Hy-Vee announced on Thursday its intention to plant at least 100,000 trees this fall in the eight Midwestern states where it does business.
Hy-Vee was founded 86 years ago and East High goes back even further. The pretty campus features lots of mature shade trees that have been there from the beginning. But there is ample room for more and 40 were put in place by the time school dismissed Thursday afternoon.
East senior Rory Walling has been doing it all on the gridiron in two Scarlet victories. He plays quarterback on offense, linebacker on defense and even long snaps on the punt team. No wonder #6 was quick to grab a shovel and throw some dirt around a tulip tree on Walker Street.
“We play Southeast Polk tomorrow night,” he said, probably imagining that he and his teammates were burying the Rams. By then Barnes was signing autographs in the shade.
One step at a time.
