Over 300 gathered at Skiddy Park to attend the “Trick or Trees: time-to-plant festival,” the largest ever volunteer based tree planting and tree giveaway in the City of Syracuse with a festival highlighting aspects of   sustainable communities.

Youth from the Onondaga Earth Corps and adult volunteers in the CommuniTree Steward program lead over 150 volunteers from Syracuse Housing Authority (SHA), b.i.k.e. Syracuse, SUNY-ESF, SUNY Morrisville, 40 Below, West Genesee High School, Home Headquarters, and GreeningUSA in planting 176 trees at the SHA James-Geddes Complex and on Shonnard, Seymour and Gifford Streets -- all within the Clinton sewershed, an area targeted by Onondaga County to reduce stormwater runoff and combined sewer overflow.

Tree planting was followed by GreeningUSA’s second Sustainability Academy festival of the year. Festival goers learned about energy efficiency, green schools, green jobs, planet friendly eating habits, soil health, neighborhood engagement, rain barrels, rain gardens, green roofs, bike repairs and of course about the benefits of trees. Neighborhood youth developed a benefits-of-trees activity and a green infrastructure tour of the rain garden, rain barrels and green roof at 515 Tully St for the festival, and were responsible for giving away 130 trees to local residents and volunteers. People visited a series of stations with a festival passport and were rewarded with prizes such as compact fluorescent light bulbs, energy saving gadgets, cookbooks, gift certificates to local stores and trees.

Highlights of activities from each station included:

The 2009 Sustainability Academy at Fowler High School commenced May 7^th with an introductory session about sustainability and recycling. Subsequent sessions were held on May 14^th and May 21^st with topics of food, gardening and green infrastructure, and green schools.

All sessions will be held at Fowler High School cafeteria

227 Magnolia St., Syracuse NY

• Sustainability 101, Recycling (May 7^th 5:30 - 7:30)

People, Planet, Prosperity and YOU. Find out what you and the community have to gain from “sustainability.”

• Food, Gardening and Green Infrastructure (May 14^th 5:30 - 7:30)

• Healthy and Green Schools (May 21^st 5:30 - 7:30)

Our children are our future. Find out how healthy green schools can make a difference in their future.

Parents, grandparents children, and other interested community members flocked to the GreeningUSA "Get Your Green On" Spring Festival held at Blodgett School on the Near West Side of Syracuse. Over 350 participants traveled around the Blodgett gymnasium participating in environmentally themed stations, enjoying festive games and crafts, and enjoying dance performances by local dance groups. Participants pedaled to power light bulbs, planted vegetable seeds and learned about a planet friendly diet, wrote letters to the president about green schools, painted a rain barrel, learned about green jobs, played a "dunk your junk" recycling game, played games introducing the concept of sustainability, took a penny poll, talked about bicycling and using a car share program, took a quiz about all that they learned and more.

Upon entry to the festival, participants received a "Get Your Green On Passport" which they took to 10 separate stations each with its own interactive learning activity. Participants that completed their passports were awarded green prizes such as compact fluorescent light bulbs, gardening gloves, vegetable seeds, organic shopping bags, environmentally friendly cleaning supplies, etc.

The Festival is presented in collaboration with OCRRA, Naef Recycling, Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Syracuse City School District and the Amos Project. Funding is provided by the NYS Pollution Prevention Institute through a grant from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.