Collingwood School is a large private school with 1,100 students ages from 5 to 18 and 160 teaching staff. This is a sister school of Mulgrave School, where tree planting took place in 2003. Ms. Meghan McAlister, then a student at Collingwood School, heard about the tree planting at Mulgrave School from her friend and applied for the project on behalf of the school. She applied while she was still at the school, however, since she expected to graduate from the school in 2004, Head of Senior School Ms. Lisa Evans took over the project.
As Collingwood School has exchange programs so students from various countries come learn together at the school. Meanwhile, the vice principal has chosen “Sadako’s Story (a story of a girl who was an atomic bomb victim)” as a reading material in his/her class and learned about the atomic bomb together with the students. The school also emphasizes on art education and displayed artworks by children that expressed how they perceive “What is peace?” with pictures and words. As the tree planting day coincided with the school’s “Art Day,” even more works than usual were on display.
At Collingwood School, there is an “Alumni Homecoming Day” once every year. The tree planting was planned as a gift from the alumni to current students to celebrate the day. The tree planting ceremony took place with attendees such as alumni, students representing current students, Vice-Consul of the Japanese Consulate, vice principal of the school and local media. It started off with an opening address by Ms. Evans and then a message (on history of the persimmon tree and the meaning of presenting the trees from alumni to current students) addressed to current students was read by Ms. McAlister. A speech was given by the Vice-Consul of the Japanese Consulate and the message from Mr. Ebinuma was read by the executive committee member of the project. The students representing current students read the texts written on the panels that were to be set up near the trees. Two trees were planted on the day. One is planted at the Upper school (where children ages from 12 to 16 attend) and the other one is planted at the Preparatory school (where children ages from 8 to 11 attend). A Friend/Friends of Ms. McAlister who participated in the tree planting at Mulgrave School in 2003 also attended the ceremony. A Japanese student’s mother came over to the school and helped her child and Ms. Evans dress in Yukata so that those two could attend the ceremony in Yukata.
