W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center is a NPO organization located in Albany, the capital of the state of New York. The center is actively conducting various projects to educate and improve the lives of impoverished people. It is also promoting partnership with companies and the government to enhance safety of children by upgrading and improving the facilities and environment of the Tivoli Lake Nature Preserve after they had learned that Tivoli Lake was polluted. They are going to make the peace garden in the preserve after 2 years and plant a persimmon tree there. By planting the persimmon tree, they hope to provide spiritual support to the impoverished people in the community.
Tree planting was led by Mr. Peter Sheeham of W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center. He was introduced to the Kaki Tree Project by Ms. Maryam Mair, a teacher at Draper Middle School and applied for tree planting. Ms. Mair is also a volunteer member of W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center. Those two institutions, Draper Middle School and W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center worked together and prepared for tree planting.
Prior to the tree planting ceremony, an Origami workshop was held and 50 local children participated in. A huge banner was also made by the children. The ceremony started off with Erhu performance by Mr. Tang followed by a talk on the Holocaust in Germany by Mr. Anton Segole (a Holocaust survivor).
Since plants imported from other countries have to be planted in a pot for the period of 2 years before they can be planted in the ground in the USA, only a presentation ceremony of the tree was held. They told us that they would continue to proactively engage in activities with the persimmon tree to convey peace to children in this community who are less-educated.
